Dogfish Head's Midas Touch and Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Dogfish Head, an excellent craft brewery based out of Delaware, has produced several of what it calls "Ancient Ales". Essentially brewer Sam Calagione is working with an archeologist to recreate ancient beverages. Midas Touch is based off the contents found in an ancient tomb in Turkey believed to belong to King Midas. The recipe includes barley, white muscat grapes, honey, and Saffron. I picked this beer up a while back, intrigued by the story behind it.

Dogfish Head Midas Touch
Ancient Ale / Spiced Ale, 9% ABV, muscat grapes, honey, saffron

First off, is this beer? Yes, I believe so. The "traditional" recipe for beer is barley, water, yeast, and hops (though this Midas Touch recipe is technically older), and all of these are present here. Many, many other beers deviate from these four ingredients (white ale, kriek, and pumpkin ale to name a few), so I think it is fair to say that this may be exotic, but it is still beer in some sense.

This pours a very light amber/ dark straw color, with a few bubbles but not what I would call a head. The smell is of muscat grapes. This ale has an initial bite of saffron, malt, and muscat that is well balanced, and fades into a slightly sweet dryness that I strongly suspect is due to the use of honey and finally into what I believe are either subtle hops or saffron. The flavor is complex and unusual. Some say this tastes more like a wine, but I think the flavor lies somewhere between beer and wine, but with a good deal more herbiness than one comes to expect from either. I liked this beer, though it was somewhat outside of my comfort zone. It is a bit strong at 9% and has a very interesting flavor; I'm glad I drank it slow to appreciate everything going on. I am glad they didn't go any stronger on the honey; I find that too much dryness and alcohol flavor is somewhat unpleasant.

Pairing this with creamy chicken noodle soup was a complete shot in the dark, as I had no idea what to expect from this ale. I modified the recipe by first sauteing onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and mushroom in a pan before adding the chicken, broth, and some white wine. Also, I used egg noodles instead of rice and as I had no sauce packet, I made the roux with sage, black pepper, and herbes du provence instead. This soup turned out really well. It is rich and hearty, creamy and delicious.

Despite being a shot in the dark, this pairing actually turned out pretty well; it seems to be getting better as I work my through the beer. This ancient ale provide an interesting, herby contrast to the creamy soup. The soup brings out the dryness and saffron in the ale. This one is quite interesting and if you have the patience to make soup from scratch, I'd recommend trying it.