Noble Rot brewed by Dogfish Head Brewing - Milton, Delaware           

As often as we look forward and innovate, Dogfish Head has looked backward for inspiration as we explored ancient recipes like Midas Touch, circa 1740 B.C., in Turkey and Chateau Jiahu, circa 7000 B.C., in China. Now we are bringing this hybrid concept into the future with Noble Rot. This brew is the most ambitious hybrid of beer and wine in thousands of years.
    

       
"This is the absolute closest to equal meshing of the wine world and the beer world that's ever been done commercially," says Dogfish Head Founder and President Sam Calagione.

For Noble Rot, 49.5% of the fermentable sugars come from grapes, and 50.5% come from grains. Two unique white wine grapes, sourced with our friends at Alexandria Nicole Cellars in Prosser, Wash., add complexity to this saison-esque science project.
    

    
The first addition is unfermented juice, known as must, from viognier grapes that have been infected with a benevolent fungus called botrytis. This "noble rot" reduces the water content in the grapes while magnifying their sweetness and complexity. The second is pinot gris must intensified by a process called "dropping fruit," where large clusters of grapes are clipped to intensify the quality of those left behind.

"It's been fascinating to watch the cross-pollination of wine and beer," says Alexandria Nicole Founder Jarrod Boyle. "We're excited to be involved in this."
 
        
 
Noble Rot, which clocks in at 9% ABV, is brewed with pils and wheat malts and fermented with a distinct Belgian yeast strain. It has a spicy white wine body and a dry, tart finish.

Noble Rot will be available in 750-ml bottles ($12.99 MSRP) and on draft in the next few weeks. We are very excited to bring a beverage like this into the beer, food and wine worlds simultaneously.

Besides, we always wanted to see if a beer with the word "rot" in the name would actually sell.

Beer Review by Beer Advocate:
Served in a snifter glass it was a hazy golden color with a creamy off-white head. The retention was poor but that might have been from a dirty glass, and it didn't leave much lacing behind at all.

The aroma was stunning. It was bright and full, and fruity and sweet and somewhat tart. It's made with Botrytis- infected Viognier and Pinot Gris grapes, and I could really smell the Viognier.

In the mouth it was medium bodied with a smooth, fine-bubbled median carbonation that gave a gentle caress to the tongue. The slight tartness accentuated that a bit, leaving you with a gentle zest.

The flavor was very much as the aroma suggested it would be, but fuller and richer. It was sweetish with a somewhat tart zing and some slight funk within a golden and lightly-bready "Pilsen" malt base. It was mineralish, like crushed granite dust; and along with a bit of grassiness, a mild underlying bitterness, and a spritz of alcohol it balanced the very grape-like fruitiness nicely. It finished with a note of sweet fruit, funk and tart dryness (like wet-straw and chalk-dust), leaving behind a mild astringency.

Overall it was unique, refreshing, and interesting. Well worth seeking out!!!
   
                       
 
The Start of Dogfish Head, America's Smallest Brewery in 1995
The story of Dogfish Head began in June of 1995 when we opened Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, the first state's first brewpub opened in the resort beach community of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The plan was to bring original beer, original food, and original music to the area.

Not only was Dogfish Head Delaware’s first brewpub, it was the smallest commercial brewery in America. Our very first batch, Shelter Pale Ale, was brewed on a system which essentially was three little kegs with propane burners underneath. Brewing 12–gallon batches of beer for a whole restaurant proved to be more than a full time job. When the doors to the pub first opened, we brewed three times a day, five days a week! The one benefit to brewing on such a small system was the ability to try out a myriad of different recipes. We quickly got bored brewing the same things over and over – that’s when we started adding all sorts of weird ingredients and getting kind of crazy with the beers!