Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA - A Microbrew Review

I haven't seen alot of microbrews from Flying Dog Brewery around these parts here in Western Pennsylvania until just recently. In fact, my favorite craft beer bottle shop has started stocking three or four offerings lately from Flying Dog Brewery and I was excited to give Flying Dog's Snake Dog India Pale Ale a try, so I grabbed a bottle this evening.

Flying Dog Brewery started out in 1994 as a small Denver, Colorado based microbrewery that's since relocated all of it's beer brewing production to their Frederick, Maryland brewery (where they'd been brewing a good portion of their beer since purchasing the second brewery in 2006).

The Flying Dog Brewery bottle labels are famous for featuring the eclectic artwork of Ralph Steadman of Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo fame. This bottle of Snake Dog IPA literally jumped off the shelf at me with its eye catching labeling. I couldn't pass it up.

Cracking open the bottle and pouring the 12 ounces of chilled libation into my glass, the head of this beer was fantastically aggressive, billowing up into an overwhelming 2 finger eggshell white, fluffy head that stuck a good several minutes before begrudgingly dissipating to a more managable drinking level. Color was nice, shimmery and coppery with lazy bubbles of carbonation sauntering upwards to the surface.

The aroma wasn't quite as aggressive though. A little bitter and astringent with piney scents taking the front scene of the beer's smell. There's definitely hops in there and I'm going to get them!

First couple of sips boasted a deliciously crisp brew. As with most IPA's, this beer was bitter but not to a fault. It was nicely balanced with just enough malty sweetness at the swallow but that familiar bitter hops presence stayed with the aftertaste for a while. Flying Dog Brewery has produced a balanced beer with a good mouthful of flavor. I detected a mild hint of smokiness in the beer that nicely complimented it's royal hoppy bite. Snake Dog IPA has a distinctive liveliness to it, it's very zesty for lack of a better word. Not a lot of that often grapefruity flavor however, which I found to be a good thing.

The alcohol makes its presence known and becomes progressively noticeable in a burning sensation as the beer warmed in my glass. Checking the bottle label, I notice that this craft beer clocks in at a hefty 7.1 percent alcohol by volume which is approaching an imperial IPA level. It's not overbearing to the beer flavor however, but the ABV is something to bear in mind if you're sampling Snake Dog IPA and plan to partake in more than a couple servings. This microbrew will bite you if you're not careful!

All things being equal, I must say that I love Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA. Everything in this beer I thought went well altogether. The cool looking label artwork, the quirky story and themes behind the brewery itself and of course the well put together beer inside the cool bottle. While nothing stood out as incredibly shocking or groundbreaking with this beer's flavor, no characteristic took anything away from it's excellent India Pale Ale attributes.

Flying Dog Brewery Snake Dog IPA has definitely bit me and I'll be getting off the porch and running with the big dogs right back to the bottle shop for a few more of these before the day ends tomorrow. I'd recommend Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA to any microbrew lover especially if you favor the more hoppy Pale Ales and India Pale Ale style beers. Get some today!!

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Clipper City Brewing Company Below Decks Barleywine Style Ale - A Microbrew Blog Review

Clipper City Brewing Company has become pretty high up on my list of great microbreweries lately. This Baltimore, Maryland microbrewery has put out some great beers and a few of them I've been lucky enough to sample as of late. Clipper City's Below Decks Barleywine (a 2007 vintage offering from their Heavy Seas line of microbrews) is just the latest in a series I've had the chance to enjoy recently.

I poured the chilled 12 ounce brown bottle of Below Decks into an unchilled pint glass. Color is a spectacularly clear copper and ruby. Awesome presence of carbonation and effervescence makes itself known. There really was no foam or beer head to speak of in this craft beer (as the photo above proves). Aroma was mildly of sweet fig and molasses, but not a very strong scent at all.

Taste is great! This barleywine style ale is thick, rich, sweet and sticky. Roasted malt is everywhere with molasses flavors abound. It's slick on the palate and sticky on the cheeks with a zest and zing yet on the tip of my tongue at the swallow that lingers for what seems a minute or two. While this beer is of the thicker sweet variety, it still offer a bubbly life to it. It takes on a personality of its own. It's alive!

Alcohol burn is reasonable but not overwhelming strong or present even given the fact that this craft beer is clocking in a a powerful 10% alcohol by volume rating. There is a warming effect in the chest and stomach after the first few swallows. Very nice indeed. I believe this beer has had just enough of time to mellow just a tad taking a bit of the sting off the alcohol kick that might have been too dominant had it been in a fresher state of existence, say maybe when it rolled off the bottling line late last summer or early fall (hard to say its born on date since there is no indication on the bottle).

I've gone through a few barleywines in my years of sampling craft beers. There are several that have really stood out to me and have held a warm spot in my heart over time. Clipper City Brewing Company's Below Decks Barleywine Style Ale does not rank right in the top 2 or 3 overall, but comes in respectably as a second tier barleywine in my book. It's certainly well put together and very tasty indeed. It's a sipper and not something I'd down more than one or two in an evening, but it offers enough to keep it interesting along the 30-60 minutes it takes for me to imbibe a full twelve ounces.

I can't find anything glaringly wrong or off with Below Decks Barleywine Ale. It's not the ultimate barleywine I've tried, but it's nowhere near the worst either. This is worth the try if you enjoy the stronger barleywine style ales. Pick up a bottle or two if you see it somewhere in your local sixpack shop. I don't think you'll be disappointed at all. As with any strong ABV craft beer and barleywine ales in particular, it might be a good bet to keep a spare in the fridge for a year or two before trying it out again just to see how well this barleywine matures over time. I'll get Clipper City Brewing Company's Below Decks Barley Wine Style Ale a 7.75 out of 10.00 on my personal microbrew rating scale. You'll enjoy the beer and check out the entertaining bottle label as well.


If you found any enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please let me know what you liked or didn't like and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers!

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Clipper City Brewing Company's Red Sky at Night Saison Ale - A Microbrew Review

Clipper City Brewing Company's Red Sky at Night Saison Ale. Here's a craft beer I've never had the opportunity to sip down before let alone do a microbrew beer review about. I just picked up this single 12 ounce bottle from the famed Baltimore-based microbrewery tonight and was anxious to give it a try. Let's get started with the beer review shall we?

Pouring the chilled brown bottle into a 16 ounce pint glass, the "new penny" colored ale sparkled and shimmered with good carbonation and plentiful, playful tiny bubbles cascading eagerly upwards towards the surface. Once there, they formed a meager one finger layer of head that only lasted but a brief minute or so.

This Baltimore-based microbrew's aroma of strong candied fruit and yeasted malt wafted aggressively from the surface and all around the close proximity of my glass. Fruits of banana, plum and even a bit of sweet citrus come to mind along with the unmistakable scents of Belgian yeast. So far, this beer is looking and smelling pretty good.

Partaking of the first few sips of Red Sky at Night Saison Ale, my palate is greeted with a full bodied, sour yet sweet flavor. It's definitely Belgian in nature and thick in texture. The initial sweetness is quickly followed by the soured zesty fruitiness ending in a fairly clean swallow with a citrusy and oily presence left in the middle of the tongue. There's a certain level of spiciness to it as well which makes the ale quite refreshing, maybe almost too much so.

As the glass emptied to its halfway point, I observed an absence of any lacing or "legs" from this beer on the wall of my pint glass while the liquid still remained crisp and clear and full of carbonated energy. A timid ring of foam still lined the top perimeter of the glass at this point. Throughout the remainder of the sampling this Clipper City Brewing Company microbrew stays strong and consistent never wavering in flavor or scent.

Overall, I'd give Clipper City Brewing Company's Red Sky at Night Saison Ale a 7.75 on my microbrew rating scale of 1 to 10. This is a respectably complex and enjoyable craft beer that will please many fans of many wide-ranging microbrew styles yet will also satisfy those experienced and discriminating Saison Ale style afficiandos as well. The 7.5 percent alcohol by volume presents a warming factor in the gut which is not predominantly what you'd seek out in a seasonal beer this time of year being that it's late spring/early summer and all. But Clipper City's Red Sky at Night will definitely stand on its own merit no matter what the calendar says or what the occasion might be. Just don't go overboad with this "Heavy Seas" offering from Clipper City Brewing Company. Keep it "above board" when enjoying this microbrew. Ahoy Matey!! Cheers!!

If you actually experienced any level of enjoyment in reading this microbrew beer review and if you love craft beers in particular, you'll find more craft beer reviews of both new and old microbrews and also fun microbrew and craft beer-related info at Microbrew Review or Microbrew and Craft Beer Reviews. Click through on the links above and please let me know what you liked or didn't like and let me know any beers that you might like to see me review next time. Cheers!

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