Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine

Brewed by Flying Dog Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Frederick, Maryland USA

Oooh, ooh, oooh, awesome. Dug it big time. This one is just good old fashioned delicious, with one of sexiest looking pours in recent memory.

Bottle. Nice head with good duration. Color is dark amber. Aroma and taste are sweet caramel, malt and fruits. Good long finish.

Appearance: Pours an opaque, dark reddish-brown body with a scattered, off-white head. Smell: Sweet-smelling, malty aroma with notes of toffee, roasted grains, ripe plums, and with a full, everpresent, evergreen pine scent. Taste: Sweet maltiness tasting of toffee candy. Plum fruitiness. Slight roasty coffee and woody hints. Piney, resinous hop character and moderate bitterness which hits right about the time the warming alcohol does. Finishes that’s all at once bitter, sweet, warming, and that roasty touch that won’t go away. Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Well, I will say it’s one of the better beers in the Flying Dog line-up.

I hate to use obscenities, but FUCK this stuff is strong. Just poured into my proper beer glass, It pours a very dark amber with off white head. The aroma is of alcohol and death. Upon tasting, It’s almost like biting into pure licorice root, but with some alcohol bite. It says in the commercial description they had to age this down, well I think this bottle could have aged a bit longer. I got this as part of the canis major series, so i kinda wanted to try all of them within one week. Although far from being a bad beer, I think this is just a bit too strong for my liking.

12 oz. single bottle from Total Wine in Huntersville, NC. Bottle marked "Vintage 07BB". Pours a dark copper color with a light brown head. Aroma is sweet with raisins and a bit of hops. Taste starts with a raisin/fig touch, then finishes sweet with a bite of the alcohol content. Not bad, but this will knock you on your ass.

First time trying a barley wine, so nothing to compare it to. Pours a reddish brown with little/no head. Smells like Twizzlers and alcohol. Taste is of chocolate, licorice, alcohol, and barley. Very sweet, and from what I have read it might be better with some years on it. Just ehh for me.

Bottle. Poured a dark brown with a thin tan head. The nose is the best thing about this beer and still underwhelming: very sweet, raisins, figs, and just a hint of citrus hops. The flavor on this is where it gets worse: raisins, some malts, weird metallic flavor, some bitterness, very (too much) sweet. It was rather thin for a barley wine, and really just too sweet. All-in-all, just kind of gross. I let it warm up a bit more to see if that might help, but alas, down the drain (or into my friend’s glass) it went.

Pours deep dark red with a creamy tan head. Smells of barley, and some chocolate. Taste is smooth, malty caramel, and a little liqourice hops edge and chocolate. Ends with a nice level of bitterness, warming alcohol and smooth chocolate/caramel malt. Very good.