Mike Loves Beer -

DogZilla Black IPA

October 5, 2010

Name – DogZilla Black IPA
Country – United States
Type – Black IPA

You might remember when I announced that Laughing Dog had made it’s way all the way from Idaho to South Florida not to long ago. This had me excited as I have a good number of things about these folks. I even had the chance to meet a couple guys from the brewery at my friend’s hotel in Colorado during GABF. Super nice guys.

So here we are with DogZilla Black IPA as the beer of tasting. This is actually the first “black IPA” I have seen actually classified as Black IPA on the site I use for the classifications of my reviews. I get to make a new category for this one then.

It pours into my pint glass a surprisingly clear brown color. It develops a quite large sandy colored head and has great lacing on the glass as the suds fall back into the beer.

The smell is very bready with some toasty malt characteristics. I get some hints of black licorice mixed in there as well. And there is a subtle earthy hop aroma as well.

The first sip is quite bitter. An assault of earthy hops has back up from more toasted dark malts. I can get some hints of citrus in there but they are faint. Other than that I am just bombarded with the hop bitterness.

So for my first official Laughing Dog review (I’ve had the Dogfather and the barrel aged Dogfather before) I’m sort of teeter tottering on what to think of it. I like the Black IPA style but the earthy bitterness felt a bit overwhelming. It wasn’t enough to make me stop drinking it and it was not repulsive in any stretch of the imagination. It was just a bit much. Some more presence of citrus like hop flavors probably would have evened it out and made it more pleasant. I guess I would it is slightly better than average. But I look forward to trying more from these guys very soon.

Grade – C+

Cigar City Night at Coffee District Thursday

October 4, 2010

/ Beer Events /

3 Comments

This Thursday the Coffee District along with Fresh Beer will be presenting Cigar City Night with special guest owner/founder Joey Redner. There will be Cigar City beers on tap all night along with some special goodies that Joey is bringing down with him. Those would be

Puppy’s Breath Porter
Tocobaga Red
Sea Bass (Black saison made with St. Somewhere’s yeast)

There may even be some other special treats as well. You may not know if you don’t come out.

Things start out at 6:30 and go until 10. So head down to the Coffee District on Thursday night to meet an awesome person who is helping bring craft beer attention to Florida and enjoy some of their beers.

Southern Tier Harvest Ale

October 2, 2010

/ Beer Review /

3 Comments

Name – Southern Tier Harvest Ale
Country – United States
Type – Extra Special Bitter

It’s fall by calendar standards. Too bad Florida seems to have a hard time receiving the memo each year that it isn’t suppose to be this hot and humid in the beginning of October. But then again they are pretty behind on a lot of things. So let’s just treat it like it’s “special.”

This Saturday afternoon I am popping open Harvest Ale from Southern Tier. I had an eventful afternoon by putting together a DVD case and filling it. I also hung a few pictures in the house that I have been meaning to for quite a while. The place is starting to look a little more like a real house. So now on to the beer.

It poured a very clear amber/copper color into the pint glass. It had a nice white head that when it starts disappearing leaves some good lacing around the edges of the glass.

Very bright, resiny citrus hops hit the nose. I’m not really getting a whole lot else on the nose besides those hops.

The taste is a really good mix of a toasted like biscuit taste and some earthy like hops. It’s pretty cool that that toasted malt flavor really cuts the bitterness and vise versa.

I always enjoy myself a good ESB. And this one is good ESB. Of course I compare all ESBs to Fullers and maybe that’s not fair. Especially since I can get Fullers on cask whenever I wish at the Blue Anchor in Delray Beach. And man is that heavenly. But this is a pretty good one.

As I’m writing this my brother came home and gave me a CD called Total Brutal by Austrian Death Machine. It is an album all about Arnold Schwarzenegger in thrash metal format. Some of the vocals include a Ahnold voice and it’s pretty funny. So I will enjoy the rest of my beer to this.

Grade – B (add in Austrian Death Machine and it turns to an A for Arnold)