Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine

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

From a 12 oz bottle this poured a very clear and garnet color with a rich and foamy tan head that lasted a long time and left big lacing rings. Nose of fruit and caramel malts. Flavor is complex with lots of fruit and there is a nice bitter finish. Would like to see this aged, so will put the remaining bottle in the back of the beer cellar and try to remember to pull it out next spring.

2006 bottle. Nice looking ruby color with a smallish head. Aroma is quite sweet with lots of candy, sugars, oranges, cherries, and light hops. Flavor has lots of sweet & dark fruits, darker cane sugar, and some light alcohol. It works, but still mediocre at best (and I’m guessing better at this point than fresh). Overall just an OK Barleywine.

If the words mediocre should happen to pop into your mind while consuming this beverage, don’t be suprised. Nothing about this beer has any personality or singularity to it. Instead it all melds together in this simple-minded, one-note song of pure sweetness. Not that it’s horrible in any way, but it leaves out anything that might resemble complexity or uniqueness. An aroma of caramel, lightly toasted bread and sugary. Appearance was a rusty brown color, no head to speak of. Mouthfeel was slightly thick, coating. Flavors consisted entirely of an under attenuated sugary sweetness that was quite overpowering. Now, I do like sweet beers (see J.W. Lees), but along with sweetness I want other characteristics too, and this offered little to nothing else aside from said sweetness. Overall, it’s just too one-dimedinsional to give higher marks and due to the fact there are tons of other good barleywines out there, I doubt I’ll revist this brew, unless I find it on the cheap somewhere.

(Bottle, thanks to Thaichile) Pours hazy brown/green. Smell: buttery fugge, dried fruits. Hazelnut. Vanilla. Nougat. Almond paste. Taste: fiery. Peppery. Fudge, dried fruits. Plums. Alcohol. Over-ripe pears. Well balanced. The best I have tried from flying dog.

2008 Bottle. Near opaque dark orangebrown pour with almost no tan head. Aroma is very boozy, dark rum-soaked fruit. Alcohol becomes more pronounced in the flavor I’d be happy to cellar this for a few years and see how it improves.

Bottle from Ty. Pours a dark ruby with a small thin head. The aroma is sweet and light. The taste is great: grapes, raisin, some chocolate and assorted sweets, and some small hops and malt flavors. Really nice, like a wine, but with beer greatness. The alcohol is really subdued. Overall, a great beer.

bottle. pours a deep, rich dark red with a nice head. Pretty dark for a barley wine. Aroma is sweet and has some grapes, plenty of malt, and a bit of alcohol. This is very malty sweet with just a bit of spiced character and a good dry fruitiness. Alcohol burn is minimal. [nov 10, 2007]-------� this time around. This is most certainly a barleywine as made evident by the sweet-sticky caramel. There is not much hop action here. Horn Dog gets a little sweet after a pint.

12oz bottle from Kingdom Liquors (Tampa, FL). Pours a dark brown amber color with reddish orange highlights and a thin off-white head. Aroma is sweet and malty with notes of bourbon, booze, ripe dark fruit, tart cherries, hints of vanilla, brown sugar and hints of caramel and light spice. Flavor is sweet and malty with notes of booze, brown sugar, molasses, ripe dark fruit, and hints of chocolate and anise. Generally medium body with a carbonated finish.