Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

Brewed by Flying Dog Brewery
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Frederick, Maryland USA

Draught at The Red in Santa Cruz. Black with a tan head that leaves plenty of lace. Roasty cocoa aroma. Plenty of chocolate flavor, with lower bitterness and not very much harsher roast flavors. Lighter fruity flavors, and a little dry dustiness in the finish. A little on the sweet side, but remains fairly balanced. Full and smooth body. Nice stuff, really sipable, but pretty straight-forward as well. Actually, I could pretty much drink this like it was a regular porter, for good or for bad.

Wow. I opened this thing up and when I started poring I could not believe my eyes. This stuff makes Guinness look like a light beer. The aroma was very pleasing. I usually find Flying Dog to be a little too bitter but this is a very well balanced brew. Highly recommended for porter or stout fans and hop heads alike!

Bottle from Total Wine in Roseville, CA. Poured a brown almost black with a tan head. Smelled of chocolate and coffee. A little bitter for my taste, but excellent flavors of chocolate and molassas. Full-bodied beer that they call a porter, but is in the American Strong Ale category...wierd.

bottle. average brown fizzy (fully dissapating) head into black body with decent lacing present. aromas of moderately strong milk chocolate, moderate molasses, and burn malts. flavor is initially light bittersweet into moderately bitter. full bodied syrupy mouthfeel, soft carbonation, long, long finish duration. alcohol is well hidden very well. damn this is pretty good stuff.

750 bottle aged from July of 2005...Bottle# 1194/1500.......Pours very dark brown, with a dark brown head...Complex aromas of burnt coffee and quite pungent....a ruddy brown color (blood) in the edge of foam that kisses the beer...more aromas....chocolate, deep and dark chocolate....Luscious flavors of dark chocolate, toffee, and some fruit reminiscent of chocolate dipped cherries, basically the tartness of cherries shines....effervescence is a bit much, I think it hinders the full flavors...thick and rich, it does the trick...thanks NJDevilz69 for sharing this with me...:)

Bottle Pour. As a bottle collector I love the Flying Dog Bottles. However, fancy artwork aside let’s see how this one stacks up. Pours near black with a wonderfully brown fizzy head. Looks like syrup coming out of the bottle. I love dark beer! Head fully diminishes, but leaves some pretty good lace. Smells of alcohol, spice, roasty, licorice. Chocalate, chocolate, chocolate! Coffee too. Flavor is weet for a second with a burst of bitterness and alcohol at the end FInish is average length with some alcohol warming the belly. Feels heavy, mouth-coating, syrupy. Very full feeling beer.

Brown, beige medium lasting head. Rich aroma dominated by roasted malts. Licorice. Dusty chocolate too? Medium complex flavour with coffee, roasted malts. Synthetic vanilla (from cheap chocolate?). Has a somewhat odd dusty note (like air from the attics...). Overall drinkable.

Bottled 355ml. 8.7 ABV. It pours a extremely dark beer with a deep beige head. The nose is of roasted malt and nutmeg with notes of plums, ginger, almonds and grapefruit. Some piney hops showing up. Full bodied. Milky. Wonderfully hoppy with a good bitterness. Again a lot of nutmeg accompanied by grapefruit, ginger and aniseed. Reasonably pleasant yet not all that nicely balanced. Bitter finish. with hint of licorice, nutmeg and aniseed. More like a american strong ale than a imperial porter.