Beer Review: Flying Dog Atlantic Lager

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 4.7 percent

Appearance: Under Dog Atlantic Lager pours a lighter shade of brown. It highly resembled something close to a glass of iced tea. IF you want it to be something more filling, it also has a color that resembles the crust of freshly-baked break. There are also a few sectors of the body that are a shiny gold as well. This brew featured those beady carbonation bubbles that rose upwards in streaky trails. It also had a slight haze with a thin, but bright white head that faded away after about a minute and a half. To my dismay, there wasn't any lacing to be found once the head of the beer went away!

Smell: Very bready and crackery. A little grassy and a low hop profile. Overall, this was a very moderate aroma. There was also a bit of fruit that peaked through. I sensed it was something close to an apple, but everything else seemed to distort it. I couldn't quite tell.

Taste: This was kind of weak in the first portions of the tasting for me. The apple flavor was very light and hard to detect on the front of my tongue. The bread and cracker profile kicked in after the apple and was thankfully quite stronger. The bread/cracker sensation took a foothold and combined for a tasty finish with the mild hop bitterness. A definite plus for me was the plethora of carbonation adding to the texture of the beer.

Overall Rating: 

This is a quality lager. The lack of head retention was a little on the downside for me as was the weakness of the fruit presence. I actually felt a little stressed trying to figure out what it was. Before I knew it, a third of my beer was consumed! The bread effect and the mild hop notes work very well with this, though.

Monday Rant: Double Dosage

I had an unusual encounter with a beer this past weekend. This event caused me to split this week's edition of this post into two rants. This tends to happen to me when I have a beer and end up being somewhat disappointed with its flavor. Oh, alright I'll admit the truth. It's usually hops and this was the case once again.

American Pale Ales - A Diverse Style

I wont point names or name fingers, but I had a particular pale ale Saturday evening and for whatever reason it just tasted like an IPA to me. It had wonderful color as well as decent head and attractive retention. Each sip was just a mouthful of piney hoppiness and I'm not the world's biggest fan of that type of bitterness.

When I think of pale ales, I think of something on the British side. I like it on the maltier side with that awesome pale aftertaste. I obviously don't prefer them to be closer to IPA's. I'm starting to discover that within the style of the modern American Pale Ale there is a lot of diversity.

Take the pale ale I mentioned earlier as an example. Compare that to something like Flying Dog's Doggy Style Pale Ale, which is a lot maltier, and you'll understand the depth of the variety in this category. Which leads me to my next venture.

Craft Trends - How Much is Too Much?

Yea, nobody uses this hashtag but me.

This run-in with this really hoppy pale ale also sparked a thought in my mind concerning a trend in today's craft beer scene. Are we getting to the point where some brewers are just putting hops in their brews for the sake of putting more hops in than the competition? Could this possibly be because that's what a good portion of the beer community wants? I'm certainly not going to hate without ruling out that possibility. I try to see all of the angles.

If that's true, then so be it. I might just be in the minority on this one. You might like hoppy beers that are dominated like hops. Especially the pale ale I didn't enjoy on Saturday. That's perfectly fine.

I just get irked when I read things like this at Ding's Beer Blog. If making bigger and hoppier IPA's than other brewers are is what's really going on then craft beer is heading down a road full of pot holes.

Pastry Pairing

How many times do you come across something totally mind-blowing and wonder to yourself how the hell you didn't think of it yourself? That's right tons of times. The same thing happened to me when I read this Flying Dog Brewery blog post.

I once tried pairing peanut butter cookies with Reese's Pieces alongside my homebrewed mocha stout, but I never thought how perfectly Girl Scout cookies could go with different craft brews.

I've linked you to the entire list the brewery staff came up with. I'm sure the possibilities are endless. In my humble opinion, the Thin Mints most likely go well with any type of chocolate stout.

Monday Rant: Plenty More Football Than Beer

I'll try my best to not talk football on this mournful day following Super Bowl XLVII, but I do need to let a few frustrations off of my chest. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. If you can throw some simple addition in there you'll figure out that I don't like the Baltimore Ravens either.

The last two years of the NFL Playoffs haven't been comfortable to watch for me. Each year three of the last four teams have been teams that if they win the Super Bowl it would be a punch to the stomach of any passionate Steelers fan.

One of my favorite labels, too.

If the San Francisco 49ers would've won either of the last two the team would have tied Pittsburgh with six Super Bowl championships (I know Green Bay has more NFL titles, but that argument isn't so convenient for me). If the New England Patriots happened to win the combination of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady would have tied Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw with four Super Bowls as a coach/quarterback pairing. With the Ravens, the reasoning is somewhat obvious.

I especially don't care for how a certain Baltimore linebacker and his tendency to proclaim how his practice of religion is somehow better than other people that happen to play the exact same sport that he does and this is coming from someone that's a terribly inconsistent Catholic.

As you can see, yesterday's big game was a no-win situation for me. The best possible solution? Look at it as a competition between beers. My favorite brewery in San Francisco is Anchor Brewing, whose flagship is Anchor Steam Beer. In Maryland I narrowed it down to Flying Dog. If I had to pick a favorite from Flying Dog it would have to be Raging Bitch IPA.

In terms of beer, this is an easy choice for me. I believe Anchor Steam Beer is one of the truly great beers in existence. I have Raging Bitch ranked up there pretty high as well and my girlfriend literally lives a two minute drive from the brewery, but I from a strictly beer perspective I love Anchor Steam Beer.

So, maybe I was actually rooting for the 49ers last night? I'm not really sure. Anyways, if you're a Ravens fan congratulations. Enjoy it. I sure enjoyed the two my Steelers gave me.

Beer Review: Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale

Serving Type: Draft

ABV: 5.5 percent

Appearance: Flying Dog's Pale Ale pours an interesting shade of dark brown. The upper portion of the brew was a dark amber while the lower parts of it were a bit lighter and closer to the orange/tan spectrum. It also has a slight cloudiness to it with a half-inch bubbly, white head.

Smell: This beer was somewhat of a surprise in the aroma department. I picked up some malt that had a roasted scent to it. Behind that was a little amount of citrus, which I assume came from the hops. Here, I usually expect aromas of a lot less strengths such as wheat and yeast. Maybe even some honey. This definitely didn't go easy on the sweetness.

Taste: On the front, I got a ton of that roasted malt I picked up in the scent. The back featured the hop bitterness, which was a bit overpowering for my taste buds. The aftertaste leaves you with that characteristic paleness you expect from beers of this style. It finally came at the last second, but the paleness you'd expect was finally there.

Overall Rating:

In pale ales, I usually expect something a bit sweeter as opposed to dark and roasty. I also don't enjoy an overload of hops, as I think it defeats the purpose of this type of beer. If it's a pale ale, I want it to be just pale. Maybe even a touch of something sweet. Please save the hops for the IPA's.

Beer Review: Flying Dog Sour Cherry Ale

Serving Type: Draft

ABV: 4.7 percent

Appearance: Flying Dog's Sour Cherry Ale instantly reminded me of the old Raspberry 7Up my grandmother would serve at the kids table during Thanksgiving. It was a slightly hazy hot pink with plenty of visible carbonation. The head was white and thin.

Smell: I got a strong sense of tart cherries at the initial waft. I'm sure this wasn't a sour, but it smelled pretty close. A somewhat strong backbone of wheat was behind the cherries, giving off a sense of cherry pie.

Taste: The tartness and sourness of those cherries was prominent in the beer's flavor. The wheat flavor doesn't kick in until the after taste hits. It's a very interesting flavor when the wheat finally mixes with the tart of the cherries. It reminded me of a pie crust, which is in my opinion the best part of any pie. This would be awesome as a dessert beer.

Overall Rating: 

The body of the beer reminded me of pop or soda, depending on where you're from, but the combination of tart cherries and what reminded me of pie crust made up some big ground in the points department.

Beer Review: Flying Dog Raging Bitch IPA

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 8.3 percent

Appearance: Raging Bitch looks a bit intimidating at first, and that's just when you look at the bottle. As for the actual substance that pours from it, the beer is a dark and cloudy shade of orange. A thin, yet fizzy white head crowns the top with some really good retention as it will remain on the beer for most of the drinking session.

Smell: This beer smells very sweet and piny at first. Malts and yeast both make a timely appearances as well. I didn't get a hint of the high alcohol content at all.

Taste: Spices hit the front of the tongue. Some citrus hits you mid-sip and that iconic IPA bitter hoppiness hits you on the back before it all goes down. A very interesting combination of sweetness and bitterness.

Overall Rating: 

An excellent beer. An excellent look as well as an adventurous taste. One of the better beer's out there to pair with food. When I drank this one I had it with beef.

Flying Dog's Lucky SOB Returns

Image via Wikipedia

Probably the weirdest plant to ever be brewed.

According to a link I found at The Full Pint, Flying Dog Brewery based in Frederick, MD is due to release it's Lucky SOB Red Ale next Tuesday.

Interestingly enough, this beer is brewed with four leaf clovers picked on St. Patrick's Day last year. Another interesting nugget is that the following poem is recited while the four leaf clovers are added during the brewing process.

"Here's to a long life and a merry one,


A quick death and an easy one,


A pretty girl and an honest one,


A cold beer and another one!"

Luckily for me, I'm heading down to Frederick next Friday as it sits right now. Maybe I'll strike gold and get an opportunity to dive into this beer while on my trip. After all, my girlfriend does live just a few blocks from the brewery.

Make sure you're following the Beer Snob on Twitter! 

Beer Review: Flying Dog Road Dog Porter

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: Six percent

Appearance: Road Dog has a very dark body. Looked to be even darker than a glass of cola. Impossible to see through without any assistance from light. Even then it's still tough. There isn't much of a head, as it is slightly fizzy and disappears almost as fast as it's poured into the glass.

Smell: I got a lot of roasted malts and chocolate from this beer. I'm still learning to enjoy most porters, but must admit that the smell of this beer caused some mouth watering.

Taste: There was plenty of the chocolate and the roasted malts on the front end. In the back, there's a tad of bitterness which balances the the beer's flavors.

Overall Rating:   

I love reading the stories on the side of craft beer bottles and I loved that this beer is inspired by a Hunter S. Thompson story. The chocolate made this beer for me because it tasted like real chocolate, not artificially infused chocolate like a certain bock I had a while back.