By Iron Chef Leftovers
Laughing Dog Brewing out of Ponderay, Idaho, is one of the more underrated breweries in the Northwest. The produce several good beers, but where they excel is in their IPA’s producing several outstanding ones. One of my favorites is the Alpha Dog, a very highly hopped double IPA, coming in a sizzling 127 IBU.
This beer pours amber and slightly fizzy with a smooth, white head. The nose is pleasantly floral from the inclusion of Columbus and Mt Hood hops and teases with hints of malted barley. The initial taste yields a great crispness without being tannic with a short hit of bitterness followed by a lingering hoppiness with a hint of sweetness on the finish.
As the beer warms, the bitterness fades and is replaced by a subtle sweetness with a more pronounced floral notes on the nose. My only complaint about this beer is that it lacks the strong citrus notes I love in an IPA – they are there, but barely noticeable, even as the beer warms. Even then, there is tremendous balance in this beer, producing a high IBU beer with enough bitterness to remind you that you are drinking an Imperial IPA, but not so much bitterness that the only people who would drink this are the most hardened IPA lovers. At 8%, you probably won’t find yourself having more and one or 2 of these.
Overall, I love this beer and would gladly drink it any time someone handed me one or I see it in a bottle shop.
Alpha Dog gets 4 canines out of 5.
FlatbreadGarden 
Have it in the fridge and plan to try it tomorrow night!
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I really love this beer. I kept going back and forth on this as to whether or not I should give it 4 or 5 out of 5. Since I don’t want to score with half points, I decided to give it a 4, but I would put it in my top 10 IPA’s ever. I think the only thing that kept it from being a 5 was the lack of citrus that I love in really hoppy IPAs.
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