Midas Touch

While most beer tasters would spend their time looking for just the right stout or brown ale, I have more....eclectic tastes.  That's why, last year while perusing the refrigerated beer cabinets at Campus Fine Wines in Providence, I did not hesitate to buy a $12 four pack of Midas Touch beer (technically "Golden Elixir"), brewed by the Dogfish Head Brewing Company.

"Made from an Ancient Mesopotamian Recipe!"  the label read.  It claimed to have tastes of barley, white Muscat grapes, honey and saffron - the last three of which I had never heard of being in a beer before.  

Well, the result was absolutely delicious.  It might be a stretch to call it beer though, on account of its sweet, fruity taste and extra-smooth consistency.  With an alcohol content of 9%, it lives somewhere in a nether-region between wine, mead, and beer.  It is not overwhelmingly sweet, however - the saffron in there somehow gives it a very subtle-but-important undertone of spice.



And what they say is true:  this beer was designed based on residue found in jars in the tomb of an ancient Mesopotamian King, who was probably the real-life version of the mythical Midas.  In fact, National Geographic did a report on Midas Touch, and its more recent, limited edition, ancient Chinese sibling beer.

Dogfish is crazy brewer based in Delaware with a motto of "off-centered stuff for off-centered people."  They have actual locations in other mid-Atlantic states, but for those of us up here in the Northeast, we have to be happy with finding Midas Touch in liquor stores.  However BLUE - the blues/jazz club on Congress Street in Portland, Maine - just began to feature Midas Touch on tap, which I must say is a heavenly experience.

PS - If you're a brewing junkie and care to know more precisely what goes into this magical libation, there's a list of ingredients with instructions for your own micro/home-brew version of Midas Touch here.