CulturAle Press

Flying Dog Alpha Initiative #02 Pilot IPA Series, Frederick, Maryland

Date:  December 13, 2018

The Story—  Flying Dog is the brewery we love to hate– or maybe hate to love.  I’ve taught young women for fifty years and I recoil at the casual way women are referred to on labels and especially on the brewery tour.   But I’ve known people who have worked there, and the respect management shows to the people that make the beer and serve the beer is second only to Sierra Nevada.

So, shut up Tupper and drink the beer.   And that’s pretty easy to do.   Brewers are talented and work together in ways that suggest a winning sports team.  Flying Dog innovates and occasionally produces something that’s better for sewering than serving, but honestly, if you can’t tell from the label you’re not going to like it, it’s your fault not theirs.   For the most part even their adventures are easy to recognize as actual beer.  We’ve complained in recent posts about our describing IPAs as “another one.”  This one is something of a different one, and that’s not easy to brew these days.

The Beer— A big IPA – at 7.4% it’s just across the creek from a double IPA.   Big fruit that’s overwhelmingly berry – strawberry, raspberries, and even blueberry notes later and chalk underneath.  Popsicle fruit sweetness as it drinks but keeps its chalky base.  Ellie found fewer berries but got more of the the biting hop end.

Value — good to very good.

 This week we focus on the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night.  Look for it in 2019.

Next week we return to  HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE–  Including some surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities” we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities. (Planned publication 2019.)   We’ll shift back to great American beer for a few days before ending our year with “the best 10 beers of the last five years.”

 About these posts:  We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year.  The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings.   Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.