Traveling Through Time With Beer: Dogfish Head Theobroma And Chateau Jiahu

Boarding Our Beer Time Machine

Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales is one of the more innovative, and popular, brewers out there.  They have quite a variety of beers available on a year-round basis plus a bunch of  specialty brews that come out from time to time.  One of their most intriguing projects is their series of beers that are brewed as the result of historical research and the use of  “Molecular Archaeology”.  These  “Ancient Ales” , or “liquid time capsules”  as Dogfish Head calls them, are made from unique recipes and push the limits of what people think of when they think of “beer”.  I’ve been interested in these beers for a while and when they recently released Theobroma and Chateau Jiahu I called my buddies Randy and Chris to come on over and take a trip back in time with me to try these unique beverages.

1st We Head To Central America

We tried Theoboma 1st, which is based on an ancient beverage that was made in the forests of Central America.  It is brewed with honey, Aztec cocoa powder and nibs, chilis, and annatto (fragrant tree seeds that are a used today mostly for food coloring/flavoring purposes):

Appearance: Theobroma is a golden honey/caramel color that has good clarity.  It was lighter than expected.  The head was minimal and lacing was barely there.

Smell: The smell was very much like honey with some spice and a hint of chocolate.  There was some citrus as well.

Taste: There was a component to the flavor that we hadn’t had before.  We think it was the annatto.  It was fairly sweet.  The honey is definitely a major component.  The aftertaste had some hint of chocolate with a bit of heat from the chilis.  Overall we liked the flavor.

Drinkability: The ABV is 9% and it is fairly sweet.  Drinkability is good, as long as it is sipped.

The three of us liked this beer overall.  It is not a “traditional” tasting beer so if you’re expecting that, you might not like it.  It is sweet tasting with hints of fruit, spice and chocolate.

Here’s our score:

1.  Appearance- 6 points (out of 10)
2. Smell- 8 points (out of 10)
3. Taste- 18 points (out of 20)
4. Drinkability- 7 points (out of 10)

Total 39 (out of 50) Points-4 Mugs

Ancient China Is Our Next Stop

Next on our tour was a beverage made from a chemical analysis of 9000 year old pottery jars found in Northern China, Chateau Jiahu.  This “malt beverage” is brewed with rice flakes, honey, grapes, malt, Chrysanthemum flowers, and Hawthorn fruit.  A Sake yeast is used for fermentation:

Appearance: The Jiahu had a similar honey color to it, like the Theobroma.  The head is more prominent and carbonation is obvious.  The beer is very clear.

Smell: This was definitely a sweeter smelling with allspice, cinnamon, honey, as well as some floral notes.

Taste: Sweet grape and honey were prominent along with a bit of rice wine flavors.  It was a little syrupy but not in a real bad way.  It doesn’t taste like beer but more like a Sake, which probably comes from the Sake yeast and rice they use.

Drinkability: The ABV is 8% so this is a little strong but not too bad.  Drinkability is pretty good.  It finishes clean after a slightly sweet hit as soon as you swallow it.  Once again, this is a beverage that is meant to be sipped and savored, much like a desert wine.

Here’s our score:

1.  Appearance- 8 points (out of 10)
2. Smell- 8 points (out of 10)
3. Taste- 17 points (out of 20)
4. Drinkability- 7 points (out of 10)

Total 40 (out of 50) Points-4 Mugs

Return To The Present

Once Randy, Chris, and I returned from our “time travel” we talked about the two beers and decided that both of them, while very good and tasty, weren’t “beer” in the traditional sense.  We thought that both Theobroma and Chateau Jiahu had a taste more like mead, or sweet wine, than beer.  The Jiahu had a definite Sake taste that was unique while the Theobroma had a little bit of bite from the chilis and chocolate.  Randy and Chris liked the Jiahu a bit more while I liked the Theobroma more due to the bit of peppery bite.

Both beers got 4 Mugs in my final rating meaning they are very good.  I think they are well worth trying, especially if you are a beer geek and open to different interpretaion of the word “beer”.   The only negative is the price.  These will run about $10-$13 a bottle depending on where you live, maybe higher in some places.  Think of them as wine and share them with friends, that will make the $$ outlay a little easier to bear.