Dogfish Head Aprihop

So I’m drinking less these days. My doctor has advised me to lose weight, cut carbs, and bring down my blood sugar. I’m doing my best to heed this advice, and as a consequence I’ve cut my beer intake in half. So what does a beer blogger do when he’s forced to drink a smaller quantity of beer? Make better choices when it comes to the quality of beer! If I can only drink five or six beers all week, I gotta make ‘em count. That means loading up on the primo stuff. And it doesn’t get much more primo than Dogfish Head. If the Dogfish 60 Minute IPA is just about the finest beer to ever cross a human’s lips, then a seasonal variant of said beer is bound to be great as well. Right? Right! I generally don’t freak out for spring seasonals the way I do for fall’s Oktoberfests or winter’s stouts. But the Aprihop is a notable exception. Basically it’s an American IPA with apricots added in. Massively packed with Amarillo hops, this is not your father’s spring beer. Perhaps your first impression will be, “Damn, this is the best-tasting Magic Hat #9 I’ve ever had!” Or maybe it will be, “This is a Belgian ale, right?” Either way, you’re definitely going back for more and stocking up for the summer. The packaging quotes a blurb from Playboy (apparently some people buy it for the beer articles) saying Aprihop has “over the top smoothness.” I certainly won’t argue. The hops are powerful and chock full of the grapefruit and pine notes you expect from a top-notch IPA. There are just enough malts for balance. The apricots do not go unnoticed, but the added sweetness is not at all overdone. Overall this beer is quite refreshing, but far too potent to suck down like it’s water. At the end of the day, it probably doesn’t beat your basic 60 Minute IPA. But since baseball season has started, we can call this Dogfish’s change-up. It’s something a little different, and it hits all the right notes this time of the year. You’ll rarely see me touting a fruit beer. Enjoy the moment.