Flying Dog K-9 Cruiser

Brewed by Flying Dog Brewery
Style: English Strong Ale
Frederick, Maryland USA

this beer pours a deep brown almost black with a thin tan head. Aroma is malt and spices. The flavor is slightly warm malty and dry at the end. Not a great beer, but not too bad either. Kinda like this one. Cheers!

In the bottle at the 2007 Crescent Moon Holiday Beer Tasting. Dark amber with a thin white head. This is a bit chalky. Has a medium hop bitterness. Good malt sweetness. Mild berry aroma.

Pours a light brown with average head. Aroma is of caramel and spice. Flavor is dominated by the holiday spices. Nice, but I wouldn’t drink another.

Light malty nose. Nice pour with a rocky, but receding tan head. Flavor is dark malt dominant with a rise in hops at the finish. A slight cherry-like note appears in the tail of the swallow. There are some holiday spices in there, but the exact content escapes me. Maybe a hint of anise on the end?

Bottle. Appearance: Dark red amber with a nice tan head. Aroma: Light caramel malt, with some spice coming through. I also get a hint of something a bit fruity... raspberry maybe? Palate: Medium bodied. A little thin for a winter ale but still feels good going down. Flavor: Mostly toasted malts with some brown sugar, spice, and that same fruity taste/smell that I still can’t put my finger on. Overall: Very easy drinking, but still a tasty brew. Finishes really well, with some different flavor notes coming towards the end.

Bottle. Pours a dark brown with thin head. Aroma is malty with a little caramel. Flavor is lightly sweet, with some brown sugar, and light spiciness. Still has a strong malty flavor but a strange spiciness follows. It has a wine like flavor in it as it warms a bit, along with some hints of wood. Finish is short and lightly bitter and chocolatey. Mouthfeel is thin and carbonation is low but fizzy at the end. Not too bad but probably not on my list of beers to look for next winter.

Bottle. Clear copper with a frothy cream colored head. Aroma of light malts and some red apple peel. Caramel malts and leafy hops in the flavor, with an earthy and slightly spicy character. Some fruity (fruit stripe gum) esters as well. Not bad.

This beer is a winter beer with a lot of spiciness, which I liked. However, I thought there was also a complexity of other rather strange flavor notes that I didn’t much care for. My thought was that if the intentional spiciness were removed, the base beer flavors that remained would be odd-tasting and not very desirable. Nonetheless, this beer wasn’t bad. The appearance was very good - a deep rich red color that was clear and brilliant. There was lots of head composed of minuscule bubbles which towered over the rim of my glass. Aroma was a faint caramel smell, a copper smell (think a penny), and diacetyl. Flavor was holiday spiciness up front (think nutmeg, cinnamon, all-spice) followed by some hoppiness. I also got some isoamyl acetate (banana/circus peanuts) and vinous-ness as it warmed. These good and puzzling flavors were balanced a bit with some metallic copper maltiness. Mouthfeel was unremarkable. Not bad...but hardly terrific. I’d weakly recommend this beer. I bought this bottle at 3 Cellars in Franklin, WI.