Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - Midas Touch

If you could go thousands of years back in time, what kind of world would you step into? More importantly (for the purposes of this blog), what kind of beer would you find? Until very recently, we could only speculate as to what kind of beer people drank thousands of years ago. However, newer technology has allowed us to pinpoint the ingredients left behind on pieces of pottery and other artifacts that make the picture a bit more clear. But knowing the ingredients of beer (if you could call it that) back then wasn't enough to satisfy one brewery. They had to know for themselves what that beer would taste like. And so, in 1999, Dogfish Head (who else would do something like this?) began bottling what they called "Midas Touch"- a beer made from the ingredients found on the inside of a piece of pottery in King Midas' tomb. The resulting beer featured ingredients like saffron, muscat grapes, barley and honey.

Midas Touch pours a golden, honey color with a small, tan ring around the top. The smell is full of wine-like qualities along with some honey and tropical fruit. The only other beer I can think of that smelled like this one is Chateau Jiahu, one of Dogfish Head's other beers in the "Ancient Ales" series which is brewed using a 9,000 year old recipe from Chinese pottery.

The taste of Midas Touch is sweet and smooth, with the honey really shining through. There's a lot of white grape-like sweetness as well and a touch of sourness that reminds me of wine. The finish reminds you that you're drinking a beer, with some yeast and bready malts. Overall, the balance of this beer was pretty well done and, while it wasn't my favorite of Dogfish Head's beers, it's another beer in their lineup that's worth a try.

Final Grade: B+

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 21

Note: There's been yet another change in the rankings and Duvel has come out of nowhere to take the #98 spot. So the number of beers I've reviewed in the Top 100 climbs to 21. There are a few that I'm going to receive in the next week or two that should make that number climb a bit, including one very special beer that should be arriving tomorrow. More on that to come.