Dogfish Head Chicory Stout:
Hello friends and neighbors and a hearty and happy welcome back to you.  Some days you need a break and a nice night to help wash away the stress of the day and I think today is one of those days.  You want to curl up with something comforting, familiar, yet different and slightly exciting.  Maybe?  No?  Okay, well how about we talk about a Dogfish Head beer which is comfort beer for yours truly and we see where we go from there?  I’m not going to spout about the greatness of Dogfish again and if you’re a regular (or semi regular for that matter) to my reviews you know my adoration for them borders on obsessive.  Today we look at their more traditional stout entry: Chicory Stout. A beer made with what once was a filler for coffee, and now a flavor additive, chicory is really big in New Orleans’ coffee drinks and to anyone who’s ever had coffee and beignets at Café Du Monde knows, chicory coffee is a must.  The beer pours a midnight black with a hint of head that is no where close to the “bone white head” the bottle describes but more of a muddy white with not much lacing to speak of and a nose of a boozish stout with a coffee undertone.  The beers initial taste is a of a very mild iced dark roast coffee that is a medium roast while the mid tongue displays the spicy chicory flavor and a back end of strong coffee.  The after taste is a wet coffee booze combo but it quickly mellows to a dark chocolate flavor that sticks around with a dryness seen in a lot of stouts.  Not a bad stout really, but at only 5.2% ABV, it’s not strong enough to make an impression on me.  I enjoyed the chicory taste when it did show up but if you’ve never had chicory coffee, you’d never notice the taste in this beer.  I enjoyed this but the World Wide Stout is a much better alternative.