Flying Dog – FlatbreadGarden

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Flying Dog Brewery is a brewery out of Frederick, MD, known for their Hunter S. Thompson inspired labels and solid beer lineup. Flying Dog used to be available in Washington, but for some reason, no longer distributes here (or Oregon, or Idaho). I was lucky to see that Chuck’s Hop Shop had a keg of Snake Dog, probably forgotten somewhere, and put it out on tap.

Snake Dog clocks in at 7.1% ABV and 60 IBU and uses a combination of Warrior and Colombus hops.

Snake Dog pours almost orange with a frothy cream colored head. This beer is aromatic with hops – I can smell them while I am sitting 2 feet from the beer. Lots of citrus on the nose with a slight hint of grain. The beer is initially crisp, followed by a sweet maltiness giving way to a building bitterness from the hops. The beer finishes long and tannic with overtones of hops and resin. This 60 IBU beer is a hop bomb without actually being one – it has good balance and enough hop flavor to satisfy any hophead, but is restrained enough to be enjoyed by those who like a milder IPA. My only complaint is that the sweetness becomes more pronounced as the beer warms and lingers too long for my liking. The beer also becomes much more restrained when it warms, with fewer hops and more citrus on the palate.

Outside of the sweetness, this was a fine example of a hoppy IPA from a non-west coast brewer. Unfortunately you won’t find it in Cascadia anymore and I am not sure if it is worthy of a road trip somewhere to find it. If it happens to show up again in Seattle, I would recommend drinking one for yourself.

Snake Dog gets itself 3 Serpentes Lupis out of 5.

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I like strange and unusual beers. There are tons of great beers on the market, but a great IPA is still an IPA and I pretty much know what I am going to get with the style. Experimental beers are a different matter. Places like Dogfish Head and Elysian (with their 12 Beers of the Apocalypse) are probably my two favorite breweries consistently putting out the odd ball stuff. We even have the Strange Brew festival in Port Townsend annually. There are plenty of misses when breweries try something completely different, but even their failures are worth trying since they are styles that are generally not really being done anywhere else.

I saw a post of the BrewDog website recently about a “collaboration” they are doing with Flying Dog Brewing out of Maryland, called International Arms Race.

From the BrewDog website:

When the team at Flying Dog threw down a gauntlet and challenged us to a battle collaboration entitled International Arms Race there was no way we were not going to take them on and show them who is boss when it comes to the brewing dogs!

The International Arms Race is a new type of collaboration: the brewing team from both Flying Dog and BrewDog set the parameters for the beer and the battle kicked off.

Both beers are dubbed ‘Zero IBU IPA’ and the challenge was to brew an IPA style beer using no hops: the hops are replaced with berries, herbs and roots. And we want you to judge who the winner is: Flying Dog or BrewDog!

I love the concept – and IPA with no IBU and using no hops! Unfortunately the BrewDog website does not mention any events for this in the U.S. and the Flying Dog website does not mention the competition at all. I would love to get to taste these 2 beers – a truly experimental IPA.

Tag: Flying Dog

Beer of the Week: Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA

And Now For Something Completely Different…