Flying Dog, Raging Bitch

I'm surprised that Flying Dog hasn't made an appearance on my blog before this entry.  They've certainly been around for awhile, but I've never been a big purveyor of their beers.  Of course that all changed with the release of their Belgian IPA, Raging Bitch, which I've seen recently rise to popularity levels not unfamiliar to Green Flash's, California IPA when it first came out.

Clarity on the body is very nice and color borders perfectly between orange and golden.  Almost no head to speak of and certainly none worth going into detail about.  The aroma is a ripe richness of Autumn Belgian fruit harvest emanating with pollens and nectars.

I've decided to pair this Belgian Bitch with a meal decidedly un-Belgian: In-N-Out.  Some may question my choice of burger, however, In-N-Out holds a dear place in my heart and I'm pretty sure there's a unwritten law that when you're passing an In-N-Out and there's not a long line, you have to stop and get a double double animal style.

Despite the heavy alcohol content, clocking in 8.3%, the beer has a very light body, lots of carbonation and floral front end.  The herbs taste like chamomile and the fruit coming across the strongest is pear, which binds nicely to the alcoholic tannins.  The flavors break near the back of the palate and drive for a nice hop finish; hard to zero in on exactly what type, but my guess is a flavorful mix of both noble and alphas.  The front flavors never break though and mix well with the hops without creating an overbearing Belgian fruit/alcohol flavor that you can sometimes find in Belgian styles.

A very crisp and surprisingly drinkable beer, this is a great beer to introduce your non hops loving friends to, and definitely one worth trying yourself.  While I picked up mine at Beverage Warehouse, I'm pretty sure you can find these at BevMo and other places (including mainstream bars) around town.  As far as the burger, In-N-Out actually probably wasn't the best pairing, but both beer and burger were delcious nonetheless.

Raging Bitch: ****

Santa Cruz Aleworks, California IPA

Wow, there's a surprise for you.  This beer poured almost all foam, much to my disappointment, as you can see in these photos.

Sort of ridiculous, I don't know whether I accidentally hit the bottle on it's way out or if it was just bottled under extreme pressure.  Took about five minutes to get this to calm down.

The aroma is surprisingly far more floral more reminiscent of Belgian styles than the piney hops I was expecting.  There's a little bit of fruit in there, but far more orange pulp than lemon or grapefruit rind since I'm getting sweet aromas.  The color is an orange bordering on golden, but it is a little cloudy which gives it a deeper hue.

The flavors in this beer are a little disappointing.  Maybe I was expecting an American IPA based on the bottle description, but this is clearly a Belgian IPA by the use of grain, yeast, and hops.  Flavors are very sweet up front with loads of carbonation.  This really gets too sweet for me and I'm reminded of a carbonated fruit juice.  Otherwise there isn't much at all up front, what few flavors there are feel muffled, or perhaps drowned, in an excess of water.  The taste does an about face towards the middle of the sip moving rather abruptly for the hop finish; too soon I'd say, as the fruity front end really dissipates into a highly watery mixture that doesn't do a good enough job of bolstering up the hops.  The hop finish is strong, but very lopsided since it feels like a thin layer of industrial styled bitterness offering very little in accompanying flavors.

Ultimately, this is far more of a Belgian IPA than an American one, and almost borders on a Saison.  But even after reclassification it doesn't do much for me since the malts don't impress any paticular urgency in their identity.  Somewhat surprising that a Santa Cruz beermaker would choose to go in this direction; with a name like California IPA, I'd expect American IPA flavors. Apologies to the makers, but I just didn't like this one.

California IPA: *1/2

Green Flash Le Freak

The aroma is as advertised, west coast style hops blended with Belgian Trippel and the seam between the two is invisible to my big nose. Another addition to the popular fusion that is taking over the beer scene: IPA meets Belgian. Not being as much of a Belgian fan, I'm not as skilled at describing the flavors and knowing what I should be tasting for. However, what I will say is this: the front end has a characteristic sweetness that I've known from Trippels; that sort of pungent overripe plum. But just as the fruit begins to unleash its most pungent, viscious tannons, it evens out, and ever so slightly melds into a recognizable mix of hops and barley. The hops are bright, although subdued by the fruit immersion and subsequently the bitter kick follows similarly like a muffled instrument. Interestingly, the sweeter part of the brew has it's own kick that sort of spirals up right into the nose and back down again rather than into the throat and back up under the tongue. I have to admit when I think about the visual that description creates via "taste-o-graph," I like the balanced flow. Given my general disinterest in Belgians, this seems like a fine compromise.



Le Freak: ****