Everytime I walk in the place I could spend $200 without blinking. Tonight I wandered into a relatively expensive section of beer that I don’t frequently peruse. I found a SLEW of beers that I had been looking for for awhile, but alas, at $10-$13 a bottle they weren’t in my budget. I wound up with a bunch of good stuff though:

Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
Great Divide Hoss
Samuel Adams Long Shot
Samuel Adams Imperial Stout
Samuel Adams Imperial Bock
Samuel Adams Imperial White

So I get home and I’m super-psyched to review this Dogfish Head Sah’tea. I go looking for the camera and to my horror I find out the wife has it in her purse…and she’s at yoga. Oh well…I killed time watching the Bruins/Capitals game.

This beer was well worth the wait. The folks at DFH have brewed this one with black chai tea and juniper berries. I drink a fair amount of green tea, but rarely (if ever) have I had black chai. I’ve definitely never tried a juniper berry. The aroma is full of what I expect to be the juniper berry. Smells sweet and fruity. Before reading the label I guessed peach or apricot.

The taste is complex and unique, syrupy and sweet. A touch of spiciness is definitely how my tongue is interpreting the tea in the beer. This reminds me A LOT of a honey-based beer.

The brew looks as syrupy as it tastes. All kinds of junk floating around in the glass. I’m shocked that it is 9% ABV, although I really shouldn’t be. You have to know that something is lurking behind all that sweetness. This 1pt 9oz bottle is gonna tuck me into bed real nice I guess. On a related note, I really wish I had someone to share this with. As much as I love a good sweet beer, I’m not sure the rest of this will go down as easy as the first glass did.

The wife loves tea, and loathes beer. Once in awhile she’ll try one of the beers (normally resulting in a yuk-face). Tonight she tried the Sah’tea and said “It’s less gross than most of them”. That’s her equivalent of a rave review. I agree! Another excellent brew for an excellent brewery.