It smells of molasses, yeast, and honey.
It tastes of WOW-holy-jeeze-this-is-freaking-GOOD. Blurted out all at once. My brain has problems separating and processing the flavor. It’s complex and it comes at you in a rush.
Other beers will have a wave of this, a rising of that, a hint of so-and-so. Not this one. It’s like Flying Dog loaded all the flavors into a shotgun shell and blasted it into your mouth.
Let me take another sip and try it again…
First impression is sweet. Then molasses, then hops brown sugar medium malt…
I lost it. Another try…
There’s a nuttiness in there somewhere. Not walnut or pecan, more like a hazelnut. Just a hint, a ghost. Here and gone in an instant.
Another try yields nothing. It tastes like what it is: Flying Dog’s take on a Barley Wine style ale. And it’s absolutely awesome.
This isn’t my first try of it. I must admit, I’ve been drinking it for about two months now. It always disappears before I have a chance to review it. This is my last bottle.
That’s why I’m reviewing it, now, before it’s gone and … I have no idea if I can get more. These specialty beers come and go. You have to make the best of them while they’re around.
To summarize, I have to proclaim this as a Holy Beer Contender and rank it rather high, 9.7 even, on the Holy Grail Scale. It’s just behind the other premium Flying Dog brew I’ve fallen in love with: their Gonzo Imperial Porter.
This brew has the distinction of being the first one which featured Ralph Steadman’s artwork. According to Flying Dog’s website, the beer itself was blessed by none other than Hunter S. Thompson. It’s also the bottle that featured the tag “Good Beer, No Shit,” which got them into a bit of a First Amendment tussle.
