Double Dog – Double Pale Ale
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(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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I dare you to dislike the aroma of this beer. In fact, I Double Dog dare you!
The best thing about Double Dog is its nose; this beer’s got a bold beak that rhinoplasty couldn’t tame. A “double pale ale”, Flying Dog’s brew exhales a sweet aroma that’s fruity and citrusy, yet dark and brooding. It’s a combination that has me imagining a grapefruit reciting Hamlet; or the musings of a maligned peach, plotting revenge against the fly sullying its fuzz.
If yesterday’s Sierra Nevada Pale Ale defines the style, then Double Dog pushes pale to its limits. I’ve had the other Flying Dog Canis Major beers; each has been big in taste and quite strong, so I was expecting a significant contrast between Flying Dog and the easy-going Sierra Nevada.
The Flying Dog label seeks to set Double Dog apart not merely from other pale ales, but from other double pale ales. It reads:
Most versions of a Double Pale Ale are full-frontal, power-hopped, bitter bombs that leave you feeling a bit short changed on the back end. Our Double Dog is brewed with copious amounts of hops for an unrelenting hop bitterness and aroma. We just have the common courtesy to finish you off with a well-balanced, rich and full body, complete with a hint of sweetness.
Double Dog poured a hazy, amber-orange with a rich white head that lasted quite a while. That compelling aroma immediately began pulling me in.
Unfortunately, the first sip was quite a surprise. The honeyed malt seemed to clash with a medicinal bitterness that reminded me of cough syrup. A second swallow wasn’t much better, but after a few more sips the beer started to grow on me — and I was eventually won over. Double Dog is a booze hound, and 11.5% ABV can be very persuasive…
The alcohol manages to hide from you through most of the swallow, though it gradually shows itself toward the back of the mouth. Double Dog has a thick, heavy, slick mouthfeel that begins to taste like clover honey as the beer warms; but it has piney, spicy hops that initially seem at odds with that malt. These beer adversaries somehow hammer out a truce midway through the glass, but only the final third of the beer seemed truly harmonious. This is where Double Dog really shines — the honey-like, syrupy beer melts into the spicy hops and everything goes down smoothly.
Overall, this is a better-than-decent beer blessed a phenomenal aroma; that powerful, hypnotic perfume kept pulling me back for another sip, and I was rewarded for my persistence.
Tomorrow, I pivot from “Double” to “Imperial” — two sides of the same trendy coin — with Samuel Adams Imperial Stout. Join me with a bottle as I step from the pale to the dark!
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3 Comments
May 15th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Good stuff. I’m a big fan of this beer. My fave from Flying Dog.
I had the opportunity to have it served from a nitro tap earlier this week. Talk about awesome!
Glad you had a chance to check this one out.
May 15th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Brad, I had a moment where I was really worried — but after my taste buds grew accustomed to the beer, Double Dog really grew on me. I imagine the nitro tap gave the beer a lot of zing…
May 21st, 2009 at 8:20 am
Would agree that the beer eventually grew on me, but not to the point that I actually felt I would want another. The taste just never caught up to the wonderful nose. For me, it would be a better beer if they could find a way to hide the alcohol in the finish. Maybe I am just a session-beer kind of guy…