I love Disney World, it’s by far my favorite place ever imagined, yeah I said it. It’s the happiest place on earth after all. But it doesn’t serve beer. Well alright Epcot does but still it’s a rough scene if you want to get a few in you, which I normally do.

Dogfish Head Brewery and Eats on the other hand serves beer, lots of beer in fact. And more importantly it’s all really wonderful. In fact you can get beer there that you can’t find in your local beer store. Beers that are being tried out and maybe one day will make it in a bottle, but maybe not. And for that fact alone Dogfish Head is my second favorite place on earth. Now I should be clear that there’s actually three locations, two of which I’ve been two. But the one in Rehoboth Beach holds a special place in my heart, mostly because it’s the original location where it all started and is only a few miles away from the brewery.

So a couple weeks back on our way home from Virginia my wife and I decided to stop at the brew pub. Actually we decided to make it our stopping point on the way home. We’d get into Rehoboth late on Saturday, stop at the pub for lunch on Sunday and head on home. But the moment we got into the car on Saturday I made it my mission to make it there in time for beers. What followed was a 6 hour drive into Delaware which landed us directly at the bar around 11 at night. We opted to go straight there and check into the hotel after which I thought was a good move.

Now by the time we got there the kitchen was closed. We were able to get a couple small pizzas but I was all about the beer. Their Chicory Stout might be one of my favorites so I started out with that sucker. It has a great coffee flavor with a big chicory punch to it. I’ve managed to find it in bottles recently but that’s a different post all together. But for me the best part of the night was getting to try their Wet Hop American Summer. Sure it’s a little late to be drinking a summer beer but it’s one of those I mentioned is only available at the brewpub so I wasn’t going to pass it up. It made me want to make a baby and it turns out it actually went on tap in October so it’s not a summer beer after all. Maybe a little misleading as far as a name but it’s a big hoppy lager, light and refreshing but still packs a nice hop back to it. I was a big fan.

The next day we headed over there for lunch. I should point out that the night before we actually closed the bar at 2 AM, something that’s pretty rare for my wife and I. But the next day we ended up having the same waitress. Awkward maybe but still kind of nice that most of the staff remembered us. The wife and I ordered a couple sandwiches and then I went to finish off the rest of the beer list. The 90 minute IPA is pretty easy to find around me but still it’s always a little better from the source. It also went pretty nicely with my jerk chicken sandwich which was lighting my mouth on fire. I had another chicory stout and then went for the other rare brew on tap. Their Black Thai is an Imperial Stout brewed with edamame and Thai basil. It is then fermented with a lager yeast and 250 pounds of pureed Oregon blackberries. In short it kicks ass. All around a great brew. Smooth and dangerous, you’d never know it’s an imperial. Finished off the meal well.

So spreading out the drinks over two days turned out to be a pretty good idea. The wife and I took the ferry back to NJ and by that time I had sobered up enough to finish off the drive. Everyone was happy! If you get the chance make the trip, it’s maybe not the best vacation spot for the middle of December but to a beer fan it’s worth the effort. Happy travels!