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That's the gimmick of the latest beer I tried. My friend The Culinator came over this past wednesday to share some beer and enjoy Top Chef goodness. Currently the show is Top Chef masters, and while Culinator is not as amused with the contestants ("There's nobody to hate!"), the host ("She doesn't eat anything!", or the skill level ("I like it better when they fuck up"), I think the show is pretty badass.

The chefs on the show are all famous restaurant owners, well known in their craft, so there is less amateurism, and more impressive competition. The latest chef was eliminated because although their dish was delicious and well made, it was too simple and ordinary (toast with coconut jam, and a soy sauce egg. More than I could do, but less than the crusted swordfish, the pan fried scallops, the cured salmon and steak tartar.

With it, we enjoyed Dogfish Head's Pangea. Uncertain at first what kind of boooze it was, we looked it up. It is, as reported by Beer Advocate, a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. A bit of a mouthful, but I was intrigued. The flavor profile, perhaps unsurprisingly, is pretty similar to a Saison or Biere de Garde. It's got some serious fruity esters, with a nice hop finish, and an interesting ginger note.

Really, the big complaint from us both was how timid and mild it was. It felt like the flavors were all very dissipated, as if I was seeing them from a long way off. The flavors were each tasty, but just hints of their full potential. I was pretty unimpressed, considering how much I like dogfish head, but this beer just didn't do it for me. It's not a bad beer by any stretch of the imagination, but it just feels like a shadow of what it could and should be/what other beers are. Worth a try, but don't think I'd get it again.

Now, a word to the wise. We had the beer at room temperature, but we wondered whether chilling with concentrate the somewhat weak flavors. The bottle warned us not to, that the beer was best served chilled, but not cold. Luckily we only used about a sip each to get it cold, because it was AWFUL. All alcohol and bitterness, without any real flavor until the aftertaste. Definitely follow the bottle here folks - chilled, not cold.

In retrospect, I wonder whether judging this as if a saison or biere de garde is wrong - after all, in terms of a pale ale it wasn't all that bad. Crisp and refreshing, with enough bite to be interesting but not too much. However, they didn't call it a belgian pale ale. They called it belgian strong pale ale. And I expect something a little more forceful when they call it a strong ale - Arrogant Bastard and Brooklyn Local #2 are strong ales. This just isn't in the same weight class as those heavy hitters.