Flying Dog kindly sent a bottle of their spring seasonal Garde Dog to HTA HQ. Garde Dog is a Biere de Garde or “a beer for the keeping” according to the info. provided with said bottle. I really don’t know why you’d keep this since once I drank it, I immediately wanted to have another one. I can’t see keeping these around long in my fridge or at a party.
[...] is golden to deep copper or light brown in color. They are moderate to medium in body. This style of beer is characterized by a toasted malt aroma, slight malt sweetness in flavor, and medium hop bitterness. Noble-type hop aromas and flavors should be low to medium. Fruity esters can be light to medium in intensity. Flavor of alcohol is evident.
I’d say that in this case, Flying Dog nailed it. This is a great, easy-drinking beer. It would be perfect for a party or to introduce someone who doesn’t normally drink craft beers to something that has great flavors without being too extreme in any direction.
For your video enjoyment, Flying Dog has put together an interview w/their Executive Brewer to talk about Garde Dog. I’m embedding it below, but check the link if you want the higher-res version or are seeing this in your feed reader.
Beer and Philosophy: The Unexamined Beer Isn’t Worth Drinking is book about beer and philosophy (this is how all my grade school book reports started out, so it’s all I know..). It is a collection of short chapters from philosophers, beer lovers, beer makers, and beer drinkers–with most authors being more than one of those–and edited by a philospher and beer lover, Steven D. Hales. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Alan McLeod, a fellow beer blogger at A Good Beer Blog was one of the authors. I was sent a review copy of this book courtesy of the editor/publisher.
The book begins with a foreword from “The Beer Hunter” himself, Michael Jackson followed by an Editor’s Introduction. Both set the stage for the philosophical questions brought on, related to, and maybe even answered by beer. From there, Part 1 is The Art of Beer, followed by The Ethics of Beer. Not to be outdone, The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Beer and Beer in the History of Philosophy round out Parts III and IV. With the exception of Part 1 which has six chapters, the parts contain three chapters each. Since the chapters are written by different authors with very different backgrounds and writing styles, you may want to treat this like a collection of short stories and read one and let it sink in before tackling the next one.
Since this is a beer blog, here’s a quick list of the chapters written by beer folks:
The Beer Matrix: Reality vs Facsimile in Brewing by Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.
Quality, Schmaility: Talking Naturally about the Aesthetics of Beer; or Why is American Beer So Lousy? by Martin Stack and George Gale. Martin Stack is an Associate Professor of Management at Rockhurst University who’s scholarly work is focused on the brewing industry.
Extreme Brewing in America by Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head.
What’s a Beer Style by Matt Dunn, a homebrewer who wrote his biology master’s thesis on brewers yeast and evolution and is now completing his PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science.
These were my favorite chapters since they were written in a more natural writing style about topics I’m familiar with. In contrast, the chapters that were heavier on the philosophy ranged from very interesting to unreadable for me. I don’t fault the authors for this since they were writing about what they know in a more academic style that they are familiar with and for their audience.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone even if you don’t think you’re interested in philosophy. Many of the topics brought up by the authors were likely thoughts you’ve had while enjoying a beer but may not have taken the time to think about so it is nice to see someone take the ball and run with it. You can buy the book at Amazon (referral link which I make a few pennies from)
Yeah, the title is lame but when Flying Dog sent three beers that my wife and I tasted that night…well, I just couldn’t resist. Here was the pack that arrived at my doorstep: Wild Dog Doppelbock, Wild Dog Barrel-Aged Horn Dog, and K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale.
First Up: Wild Dog Doppelbock
The Collaborator Doppelbock is the result of Flying Dog’s Open Source Beer Project. According to Flying Dog, this has a “full body with sweet malt profile and a slight roast character”. The avg. Beeradvocate rating is 4.05/5 with only four reviews so far and RateBeer has it as a 3.33/5 with six reviews. This was what I expected for a Doppelbock and I’d definitely drink this again.
According to Flying Dog this “is a dark, sweet and malty ‘Winter Warmer’ that will captivate any adventurous microbrew drinker”. RateBeer gives it a 3.21/5 with 336 ratings and Beeradvocate gives it 3.41/5 with 136 reviews and a score of 80.
This was hands-down (whatever that means) the crowd favorite. I wanted another sip as soon as I put my glass down. We ended up roshamboing for the rest of the bottle (Julie won).
Again, from the Dog’s mouth: “this is a completely expirmental beer. We took our Horn Dog Barely Wine and aged it in used Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey barrels for 13 months to give us a Barley Wine with a very distinctive flavor.” This was brewed in limited amounts (725 12 oz. bottles) and they can only be purchased at the brewery. RateBeer gives it a 3.75/5 with 15 ratings.
Wow, this is one powerfully flavorful beer. Definitely more like a fine scotch that you sip than a beer you swig. It is sweet like a barley wine but packed with oak flavor. At 10.5% ABV, this is a beer you’ll want to sip and between that and the sweetness, one should be all you need. If you like barley wines and get a chance to pick this up, go for it.
Thanks to Flying Dog Brewery for sending these to us for tasting and for including a nice writeup on them that I could crib from for the descriptions.
I’m a bit late on writing this one up and since I am, I’m going to be lazy. See, Flying Dog was kind enough to send me a bottle of the Dogtoberfest just as it was arriving in stores. I promptly chilled it, poured it, drank it, and enjoyed it. A few days later I realized I forgot to take even the lamest of notes.
Luckily for you, dear reader, I do remember that it was good. A very nice beer that I would have liked having again–probably even a couple in quick succession. Now, I know what you’re thinking (and frankly you should be disgusted) so I won’t leave you hanging with just my “buy it/try it” recommendation. Instead, I’ll point you to The Brew Site’s tasting notes on it which are very nicely done.
Although I’m about 50 miles as the crow flies (can’t confirm, haven’t seen any crows) from Cleveland, OH (can I get a shout out from my Rock Creek peeps?!?!) I saw the Great Lakes Brewing sample 12-pack in the local market and picked it up faster than you can say “the nearest Starbucks is *how* far?”.
First up is the Dortmunder Gold. Before cheating and looking at the Great Lakes Brewing site, I had a feeling that this beer got it’s name from a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival. How, you ask, was I so prescient? Behold:
OK, enough blathering Chris, how was the beer? I like it.
OK, you want some details. Here they are from the source:
Description: A smooth lager that strikes a delicate balance between sweet malt and dry hop flavors.
ABV: 5.8%
ABW: 4.3%
IBU: 30
Ratebeer.com shows it in the 88th percentile with a rating: 4.23/5 with 423 ratings. I’d definitely drink this again–and likely will since I have two more in the sample pack. I leave you with a couple more pics:
