In this blog, we are going to dig into Dogfish Head My Antonia Pilsner.  Here is a little history of the brewery called Dogfish Head Brewery.  It was founded in 1995 by Sam Calagione in the state of Milton, Delaware.  They try to do different things to the old classic beer styles.  Their tagline says it all, which is “Off-centered ales for off-centered people.”  They do several different styles of beer that they sell out in the market.  They were featured in documentary “Beer Wars” and the TV show called “Brew Masters” on Discovery Channel.

This beer is your normal german pilsner. It has a ton of carbonation in this 750ml bottle. It is slightly cloudy with a golden to yellow in color. It has a slight circus smell or nothing in the smell from the beer. The beer has a tastes of circus with carbonation in it. The aftertaste is dry that will make you want to drink water with the beer. The dry aftertaste is slightly bitter that comes from the hops, however, it is not a huge bitter aftertaste like from IPAs.

Here is a description from the bottle:

This here beer is a lagerific departure for our ale-centric brewery.  A marriage of old world tradition and new world innovation, My Antonia is brewed with pilsner malt and continually-hopped with a blend of Noble and West Coast hops.

Here is a story on their website (www.dogfish.com):

My Antonia (named after the Willa Cather read), is a continually-hopped imperial pilsner. This lager for ale lovers is citrusy, sweet and refined.

My Antonia started out as a collaboration beer when Sam brewed it atBirra del Borgo (hope you can read Italian) outside Rome, Italy, with owner/brewer Leonardo DiVencenzo in October 2008. In 2010, we began brewing My Antonia here in Delaware for U.S. distribution.

As an aside, in June 2009, Leonardo came over to Delaware and brewed our original batch of Namaste with us at our Rehoboth Beach brewpub. And Leo is also one of the brewers involved in the Eataly project in New York City. What goes around, comes around.

Anyhoo… here is our Quick Sip Clip of Sam chatting about My Antonia with his Italian-American grandmother Jessie Calagione (they sometimes veer a bit off topic, but we think it’s a great video and love her ‘cash customers’ story). Cheers!

Here is a few ways to get to know this brewery:

Website: www.dogfishhead.com

Twitter: @dogfishbeer

In closing, I respect these craft breweries for their beer passion they have for this art. Dogfish Head is a great brewery and I love many of their beers. I love how this brewery pushes the limits of beer drinkers taste buds.  However, this beer and many of their beers that are in 750ml, I feel are not worth the money you are paying for what is in the bottle.  Let me say this, the beer itself is pretty good but for the price I feel it is not worth the money. I do love some of their beers that come in 750ml bottles.  I love their Black and Blue, Bitch’s Brew, and a few others. If you are a huge pilsner fan, I believe you will love this brew for the difference that it bring to the beer style. Enjoy it! Drink it! Metal it! \m/

Cheers!

Bill DJ Weiser

Email: djweiser13@comcast

Twitter: @djweiser