Doggie Style Pale Ale
Review Date 4/2/2002
Try?
Re-buy?
I had certainly tasted Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale in
the past, but I seemed to have forgotten how good it really is. It’s a
wonderfully delicate beer, a hoppy pale ale with plenty of flavor. All the
same, it’s a fragile beer with a short shelf life. Like many beers, it
tastes best if kept refrigerated constantly. I remember when it was first
offered for sale in Rhode Island many years ago. At first, no one knew what
to make of it. ”Doggie Style” we wondered? An odd name for a beer,
but what the heck. I’ll try anything once. Errr, beer-wise that is.
I liked all of the Flying Dog beers I tried, but eventually they stopped coming into Rhode Island for some reason. I missed them. Later I could buy Flying Dog beers in Massachusetts, namely at Yankee Wine and Spirits in North Attleboro. Sadly, the dusty bottles offered for sale there were sitting unrefrigerated on an unkempt bottom shelf and did not look at all appealing to me. So I usually passed them by.
Here in Georgia, Flying Dog beers seem tot sell very well, and so I’m back to buying them again. I recently purchased a litter of ales, which is a 12-pack assortment of Flying Dog beers. All of the beers I got were wonderfully fresh. In fact, I suspect the only way they could have been fresher would have been at Flying Dog’s brewpub in Denver, Colorado, home of the company. The brewpub offers various Flying Dog beers, freshly brewed for your enjoyment, as well as an eclectic assortment of pub foods and more traditional dishes to accompany your brew.
Originally, Flying Dog operated its pub in Aspen, Colorado, and as I recall contracted out production of its bottled beers. Demand quickly outpaced the little Aspen brewery’s capacity, and so Flying Dog moved to downtown Denver, where it currently operates its restaurant-brewpub-brewery. A 50-barrel brewhouse churns out enough beer to keep all its fans happy across the 25 states where the beer is sold.
Doggie Style Pale Ale is Flying Dog’s flagship brew. Here’s a little of what the company has to say about it:
Meet the Alpha of the pack. This two-time award winning, dominance hungry beast is sweeping through the mountains and scouting out the weak. His weapon? A classic pale ale. Malt lovers will surrender and hopheads will prevail. This amber-copper color brew is seductive in taste, mixed with a renaissance of flavors.
They certainly were not kidding about this being an award-winning beer. It has picked up the following at the Great American Beer Festival:
1991 Gold Medal in the English Amber Ale Category
1999 Silver Medal in the Classic Pale Ale Category
It has also won the following awards:
1996 Silver Medal in the World Beer Championships
2000 Best in Show at the Wyoming Brewers Festival in the American Pale Ale & IPA Category
Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale pours to a burnt orange-amber color with a thick creamy head and a delicate herbal hop nose. Indeed, a whiff of grassy-minty hops assaulted my nostrils as soon as I had popped the cap. The malt body is full and smooth with a luxurious creamy texture and a subtle hint of caramel. The finish delivers a subtle Cascade hop aroma (Doggie Style is dry-hopped with them) and a grassy, bitter hop buzz in the finish.
This is a really nice beer when drunk this fresh. It is described by Flying Dog as an English style pale ale, and I would suspect Goldings or Fuggles are used for bittering. I enjoy beers of this nature, with subtle flavors and a quenching bitterness. I enjoyed it with a simple English-style Ploughman’s lunch of cheeses, pickles, sliced meats and mustard.
I liked all of the Flying Dog beers I tried, but eventually they stopped coming into Rhode Island for some reason. I missed them. Later I could buy Flying Dog beers in Massachusetts, namely at Yankee Wine and Spirits in North Attleboro. Sadly, the dusty bottles offered for sale there were sitting unrefrigerated on an unkempt bottom shelf and did not look at all appealing to me. So I usually passed them by.
Here in Georgia, Flying Dog beers seem tot sell very well, and so I’m back to buying them again. I recently purchased a litter of ales, which is a 12-pack assortment of Flying Dog beers. All of the beers I got were wonderfully fresh. In fact, I suspect the only way they could have been fresher would have been at Flying Dog’s brewpub in Denver, Colorado, home of the company. The brewpub offers various Flying Dog beers, freshly brewed for your enjoyment, as well as an eclectic assortment of pub foods and more traditional dishes to accompany your brew.
Originally, Flying Dog operated its pub in Aspen, Colorado, and as I recall contracted out production of its bottled beers. Demand quickly outpaced the little Aspen brewery’s capacity, and so Flying Dog moved to downtown Denver, where it currently operates its restaurant-brewpub-brewery. A 50-barrel brewhouse churns out enough beer to keep all its fans happy across the 25 states where the beer is sold.
Doggie Style Pale Ale is Flying Dog’s flagship brew. Here’s a little of what the company has to say about it:
Meet the Alpha of the pack. This two-time award winning, dominance hungry beast is sweeping through the mountains and scouting out the weak. His weapon? A classic pale ale. Malt lovers will surrender and hopheads will prevail. This amber-copper color brew is seductive in taste, mixed with a renaissance of flavors.
They certainly were not kidding about this being an award-winning beer. It has picked up the following at the Great American Beer Festival:
1991 Gold Medal in the English Amber Ale Category
1999 Silver Medal in the Classic Pale Ale Category
It has also won the following awards:
1996 Silver Medal in the World Beer Championships
2000 Best in Show at the Wyoming Brewers Festival in the American Pale Ale & IPA Category
Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale pours to a burnt orange-amber color with a thick creamy head and a delicate herbal hop nose. Indeed, a whiff of grassy-minty hops assaulted my nostrils as soon as I had popped the cap. The malt body is full and smooth with a luxurious creamy texture and a subtle hint of caramel. The finish delivers a subtle Cascade hop aroma (Doggie Style is dry-hopped with them) and a grassy, bitter hop buzz in the finish.
This is a really nice beer when drunk this fresh. It is described by Flying Dog as an English style pale ale, and I would suspect Goldings or Fuggles are used for bittering. I enjoy beers of this nature, with subtle flavors and a quenching bitterness. I enjoyed it with a simple English-style Ploughman’s lunch of cheeses, pickles, sliced meats and mustard.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
