Flying Dog -

by snebbu

Endless Beer: Flying Dog White Peach Saison

Flying Dog’s Brewhouse Rarities series typically takes a standard style of beer and either amps it up, or puts a twist on it. The White Peach Saison is their latest addition to what is becoming quite the collection of rarities. Flying Dog looks to offer a “sweet, yet tart” version of a Saison. The brew meets the challenge with a balance that at least reminds me of a peach cobbler a la mode. Cheers.

Tasting Notes

Aroma: Peaches and subtle pepper

Appearance: Very light orange with haze. Light white head.

Mouthfeel: Very light and crisp with little to no lingering until it hits your throat.

Taste: Sweet peach up front, complimented by sweet, subtle caramel of the malt. Pepper/spice taste typically found in the Saison yeast comes up afterward. Sweet flavor reminiscent of a peach cobbler a la mode.

Overall: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert – this is a refreshing and tasty brew. The sweetness of the malts and white peach provides a flavor that could go with anything from pecan pancakes to peach pie. Hops are present in the suds, but the peaches are definitely the star without taking away from the Saison style.

ES Rating: 4.5/5 Suds

Endless Pairings

Cheese: Havarti with salted almonds and dried apricots

Appetizer: Mushroom, goat Cheese, and balsamic flatbread

Entree: Pineapple glazed salmon with zucchini fries and arugula salad

Dessert: Peach and pecan crepes with chantilly cream

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by snebbu

Top Ten Beers to End Your Summer

Summer is coming to an end. Teachers and students must return to the dreaded school year, people start to give up on visiting the beach/lake/river, and discussions center around when the pool will close. Sad face. With all this doom and gloom, the only way to try to squeak out the last few bits of summer are of course through alcohol. We took a look at the ten best beers to remind of the summer. Enjoy.

10. Victory Summer Love

Summer love lends a refreshing, crisp taste to a beer without losing the actual flavor of beer. For me, shandies may tend to be too sweet. The ABV is low enough to day drink without compromising taste.

9. Coppertail Unholy

Based out of Tampa, Coppertail brewed an American Trippel that sticks to the traditional style of a trippel with tasty hops throughout. This is a drink to have on the porch in the evening as the day cools down and you realize the summer is ending. The high ABV makes this a great summer night cap.

8. Dogfish Head Namaste

Namaste is one of my go-to summer beers. It’s a low ABV plus a very refreshing beer with strong taste of summer (orange, lemongrass). PLUS, it can be mixed with another beer on our list. Delish.

7. Ballast Point Pineapple Sculpin

Ballast Point Sculpin has been a tradition in our summer beer exchange for a few years now. But once they starting coming out with additional flavors of the Sculpin, we couldn’t help but try out the others. Pineapple is my favorite, and it sticks to the theme of summer. Pineapple juice flavor is strong, yet you still think you’re drinking beer.

6. Founders All Day IPA

by snebbu

Endless Beer: Flying Dog “Heat Series” Carolina Reaper Peach IPA

YOWZA! Apparently the folks at Flying dog take all of their series very seriously. The heat series seeks to provide a brew with serious heat to it without destroying the taste of the beer. Some “hot” or spicy beers provide the heat that is promised, but the flavor of actual beer is gone. These beers typically end up in our chili. However, this particular brew provides the heat that is promised while also giving the sweet and refreshing taste of a peach IPA. You will break a sweat while drinking this refreshing brew – weird…right? Good sipping beer and makes for great conversation at a party.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Light golden with good carbonation. Light head with off-white color.

Aroma: Sweet, sweet peaches with a hint of vanilla and very subtle hop aroma.

Mouthfeel: Crisp and light – typical feel of an IPA.

Taste: First, a sweet taste of straight-up peach juice with just enough of a hoppy taste to let you know that it is an IPA. Immediately following the first sip as the suds go down, heat hits the back of your throat. The heat lingers throughout the entire drink, but the sweet peach flavor continues with every sip.

Overall: The heat of the beer is not as overwhelming as a typical spicy beer – it is much more balanced and does not burn your tongue as some hot sauces do. The heat stays with you throughout the drink, but it does not take away from the peach flavor of the overall brew. You’l break a sweat, but the other flavors keep you wanting more!

ES Rating: 4/5 suds

Endless Pairings:

Cheese: Sweet Honey Goat Cheese with Blueberry Preserves

Appetizer: Bavarian Pretzel with Cheese Sauce

Entree: Grilled Sirloin with Green Beans and Twice Baked Potato

Dessert: Blueberry & Peach Cobbler served with Vanilla Ice Cream

Cigar: Nat Sherman Timeless

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by snebbu

Cookies and…Beer? Flying Dog Holiday Collection

What’s the best drink to have with cookies? BEER. Why not, people? The holidays are coming; we’re celebrating getting fat and doing it with our families and friends. To support our mission, Flying Dog created The Holiday Collection: Four Otterbein’s Cookie Inspired Craft Beers. While I was hoping that the kit would come with Berger Cookies, the Otterbein’s cookies did not disappoint. But what about having them with beer? Well, luckily I’m here to do the hard work of tasting and drinking each beer and cookie. After our DIY beer pairing, we continued on with dessert, complements of Flying Dog. We judged the beers, the cookies, and then the pairing. Here we go!

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by snebbu

Endless Beer: Flying Dog Secret Stash Harvest Ale

ABV: 5.5%

Yes, kind of a mouthful. Flying Dog sent their most recent production of their secret stash: the Harvest Ale. For a limited time, Flying Dog is offering a “local brew” for the harvest. The beer is a wheat saison brewed with local hops and malts. Flying Dog held their first annual Mid-Atlantic Hop Selection at the brewery with hopes of exposing local breweries to the best hops of the mid-atlantic region. Typically, the Flying Dog brewmaster will take part in the Yakima Valley hop selection to pick the best hops offered. However, this brew is made with local cascade hops to create a bit of a kick paired with the spices of the saison yeast.

Picture sitting around a large kitchen table as the farmers come in from a day of bailing hay ready for a nice warm supper. What do you want to drink? You want something that is going to give you a nice relaxing feeling, with some spices in the mix – a farmhouse ale. Many know farmhouse ales as Saisons. Saison is the yeast strain that provides the spicy notes we’ve all known to love in the farmhouse ales. Anywho, enough of the boring (yet impressive that I know of course) stuff…on to the tasting:

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by snebbu

Endless Beers: Happy IPA Day!

You may not know it, but it’s National IPA Day! Donut day, coffee day, ice cream day…why not have a day for those of us who take pride in the name “hophead”? Well today’s that day. Many consider the IPA (India Pale Ale) to be the brew that really made a name for craft beer. The IPA is a bold, typically strong in alcohol content, and bitter (in a good way) brew that includes strong notes of citrus. Regardless, today is a day to try an IPA for the first time, try out a crazy new IPA flavor, or crack open your favorite IPA. In the spirit of this wonderful holiday, we worked with some of the best breweries in the nation to bring your our “National IPA Day Roundup.”

Sierra Nevada 2014 Hop Harvest: 6.5 % ABV

Sierra Nevada brings out this annual 5-bottle series that features a single hop, wet hop, fresh hop, and wild hop brews. I had the Equinox Single Hop IPA. Single hop meaning they used only one kind of hop to highlight the aromas and the bitterness. The brew is an easy drink that will put you in the mood for fall. The IPA has typical hop flavors you would expect and then the taste of fresh peppers and spices from the garden comes through.

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by snebbu

Cigars and Beers: The Perfect Pair

One of the perks of being a craft beer fan is that breweries are always doing crazy, interesting things. For instance, Flying Dog introduced an old bay beer, Stone collaborates with everyone and their sister, and Telegraph Brewing Company is even helping a band release their album ON their label. That being said, it should be no surprise that Flying Dog collaborated with CAO Cigars to create a suggested Craft Beer and Cigars pairing. Together, the two determined which Flying Dog beers would pair the best with which CAO Cigars. Then, they packaged the cigars and published the pairings for all to try. Turns out they were pretty spot-on. Check out the pairings, the beers, and the cigars. If you can’t find either in your area, take the style of each and pair them together.

Here’s what you can expect from the Flying Dog/CAO pairing:

Flying Dog Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout and CAO Mx2

The oyster stout carries the typical malty sweetness, but finishes dry and includes earthy and bitter undertones throughout. It’s definitely an interesting stout worth trying. Be warned – this is not a breakfast stout style, so the sweetness is not as strong as it is in other stouts. The Mx2 cigar is paired well with this stout. The cigar complements the dry and bitter finish of the stout. The Mx2 is a darker cigar, but not as bold as you may think. Instead, it has a medium strength with a smooth smoke from beginning to end. The flavors of the cigar include some herbal spice characteristics as well as those of coffee and bitter chocolate.

Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA and CAO Sol

Hoppy meets Spicy. The snake dog delivers the promised citrus and hop flavors throughout the brew. Nice crisp mouthfeel makes it a refreshing brew with a bitter and sweet bite. Not sure what to expect, I lit the CAO Sol and was pleasantly surprised with the spicy taste that went with the IPA. The cigar had a peppery flavor throughout the smoke. Moving through the smoke, earthy notes and even some citrus were included. Another medium cigar, but it complemented the IPA well. Possibly a tie for first place in this pairing list…

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