Miles Davis Bitches Brew

Well I've had quite a few interesting brews lately to say the least. That coupled with a little rampant insomnia, has created a perfect environment for me to spew out some more verbage on one of these said brews. While strolling the isles of The Beer Junction in Seattle the other day, I ran into another interesting entry in the brewer's arms race from Dogfish head. For those not familiar with this particular brewery they are most likely one of maybe two reasons to visit Delaware? Anyway they make a huge variety of extreme beers, and all sorts of different flavors. Whatever profit the owner makes in fact he's dumped right back into the brewery and discovering new concoctions for us beer lovers to enjoy. New for August the brewery has delved out yet another strong brew for us to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Mies Davis famous experimentational album dubbed Bitches Brew. In fact the cover of that same album is the artwork for the label on the beer itself. It's not very easy to find a weak brew from Dogfish Head, and why stop now, this little number weighs in at a healthy 9%, for those who need the math that's about 6 Schmidts deer beers. As with the album this beer is all about fusion of a ton of different flavors. First off the main background is an Imperial Stout, so the main, and most abundant flavor of this is going to be that robust sweetness that's typical with those particular types of ales. The next part is something I actually had to read up on, because quite honestly I know about as much about this beer as Sarah Palin does about Russia. Shockingly I even read up on more than just wikipedia, to find out what exactly Gesho root is. For you see it is one of the main ingredients of this ale. The beer has mixed in an element of Africa a beer/mead type of drink from Ethiopia called Tej or Tella. Tej is made with honey, just like Braggot, or a standard Mead, using that particular element as it's sugar base. Tej is also made with Gesho root, and it's made with that root because hops were not standardly available throughout Africa when this type of brewing took place. Thus Gesho root is the bittering element like hops are in most of our standard brews, but believe me it has a much different flavor to it. Now I've had other ales that replace hops with heather or even seaweed, but this was something that was a whole new experience. I am not sure how strong the flavor of such a drink naturally is when made with Gesho, but the stout does a nice job of tempering the flavor to something that us beer drinkers in the states can reach as a familiarity of flavor. The best way to describe the flavor is bittersweet, I don't know if it's just the way this particular drink fuses with the honey or stout, but it is something that I can't quite familiarize any other way. The bitter element is definitely there, but it has a sweetness to it that is not like hops it all, it has a complete lack of citrus quality, it is more like a sweeter type of fruit. The aftertaste on the backend is definitely stout though, once it's down your throat old reliable takes it's place among the flavor palette. Now I got this one at the Beer Junction, but I also heard it was available at 99 bottles, and I think there were only about 3 left so it doesn't seem to be in great supply if your adventuring for something unique and new to cross your tastebuds. If you are though I definitely recommend this one, usually upon trying a beer something streams into my head almost immediately, but this time I had to clear the cobwebs and come up with a way to describe this kind of ale. It is like nothing I've tried yet, which is something Dogfish Head does well, and in honoring an ecletic fusion album, they have most certainly created an ecletic fusion of brews.