The world of craft beer is well known for its experimentation with style and flavors. For better or worse, innovation breeds new beer categories and keeps the industry fresh and interesting. And experimentation isn’t limited to just beer. Brewers take inspiration from winemakers, winemakers dabble in co-ferments with cidermakers, and the lines between fermented beverages start to get blurry. Dogfish Head, a brewery known for pushing things to the extreme, has gone ahead and ripped up the divide between different alcoholic beverages with its latest release: Fermentation Engastration. Dubbed the “Turducken of Beers,” Fermentation Engastration is a 10% ABV beer that takes inspiration from rose-scented sake, Mid-Atlantic honey and date mead, hard cider, Muscat wine, and the tradition of rustic farmhouse ales.
With so many adjunct ingredients, we’d imagine it’s difficult to parse out each individual flavor profile. But, the concept is interesting and demonstrates the natural crossover between various fermented beverages. Dogfish Head released just 1,000 bottles as a collaboration with Gastro Obscura available for $25 a bottle at the online retailer GiveThemBeer.com. Sadly it’s already sold out but Dogfish Head is considering a second run so keep an eye out.
