I've had Utopias a few times (even had Jim Koch himself pour me a glass of it once) and while it's an impressive achievement, I wouldn't put it at the top of my list of "favorite beers". It's not even at the top of my list of favorite 15% alcohol and up beers. That list would include, probably, New Belgium Brewing's La Folie wood-aged Belgian-style ale; Hop 15 , a double IPA from a Solana Beach, California brewpub called the Pizza Port; and a couple of beers from the most innovative brewery in Delaware.

The two high-octane offerings from the Dogfish Head Brewery, World Wide Imperial Stout and Raison D'Extra (the brewery's Raison D'Etre Belgian-style ale on steroids) are both dangerously drinkable, hard to find, amazingly expensive -- and worth each penny. Raison D'Extra is out now, the 2004 edition of World Wide Imperial Stout will be released in November. The last World Wide Stout was over 18% ABV (alcohol by volume) and when I spoke to one of Dogfish Head's brewers in September he told me that they didn't yet have a definite measurement on the Raison D'Extra but by calculating from what they'd put into the brew, the resulting beer should be between 25 and 26% ABV.

See more at http://www.dogfish.com/beer/index.cfm

Both of these Dogfish Head beers taste more like beer than Utopias, although while World Wide has definite roasty, chocolatey stout notes, it also tastes somewhat wine-like. Raison D'Extra reminds me of Straffe Hendrik Bruin, an ale brewed in Bruges, until you try to stand up and are reminded that this beer has three times the alcohol content of 'Strong Henry'. A couple of weeks ago I shared a 750ml bottle of Raison D'Extra with two other people; all three of us write about beer and are experienced professional drinkers used to high-octane beers and who've built up a tolerance for alcohol. That one bottle gave all three of us a serious buzz.

Gregg Wiggins
Columnist/Correspondent
Brewing News/American Brewer magazines

(Edited to fix a typo)