Hair of the Dog Blue Dot Imperial IPA

Great citrus and pine aromas, sweet orange, and sticky pine resin! Pours cloudy pale amber. Very fresh hop flavor, good bitterness, piney, with a solid malt background.

Carl Sagan reference? Pours thick with sediment and yeast like the other HOTD beers I’ve had. Earthy, orange juice aroma. Thick on the tongue with a dense hop profile. Orange stands out as the citrus component, with spicy and vegetal notes. Rather raw for the style and lacking in brightness, but the complex and natural character makes it worth the visit.

Huge shiny offwhite head. Hazy opaque yellow body. Sugary soft barnyard aroma with hoppy notes. Sweetish intense bitter barnyard taste with fry soft metallic pine needle aftertaste. Not bad, but flawed. (0.65l bottle at Knut Albert’s.)

Exploded out of the bottle when opened. Vey cloudy yellow color. It really looks like a wheat beer. Nice 1 finger thick head that lasted all the way down. Good lacing too. A pretty beer. Strong grapefruit in the aroma with a little pine. It smells chalky and gritty, if there is a way to smell that. Flavor is more towards the piney side than grapefruit, but there is still a little fruit in here. Accompanying the grapefruit some tropical fruit and maybe some peaches, oranges, and tangerines. It is almost chewy. Very chalky with good lingering bitterness, but some sweetness too. A pretty good IIPA.

Brew courtesy of fordest. Pours a faintly hazy yellow-ish orange and white head. The aroma is sweet hops from orange juice, orange peel and hard orange candy. The flavor is a smooth progression from tangy orange juice, grapefruit and then orange rind. There’s also a mild sweet sugar maltiness in the background. Seems to be a mix of both hop bitterness and hop flavor. Very tasty.

Cloudy orange-amber color with a light off-white head. Aroma dominated by citrus with some light maltiness. Flavor is overwehlmingly grapefruit-citrus with a decent bit o bitterness. Malts are pretty well done with a rather fresh and sweet flavor to it. Smooth and tingly feel and a nice finish. Not amazing, but pretty darn good and goes well with most foods.

22oz. bottle from the brewery. Aroma simply bursts with fresh citrus, plenty of juicy grapefruit and tangerine, with further notes of pine, freshly-picked leafy herbs and flowers, along with hints of pale, grainy, honeyish malts. Hazy medium golden color with a lasting, creamy head and fine lace sheeting the glass. Flavor is very softly sweet and floral up front, but sees the hops increase in intensity thereafter, becoming more dominant and reaching a crescendo at the finish where the sweetness is thoroughly overridden by bitter hop resins and citric, resinous, leafy hop flavor. Some faint lemony spice from the rye and fading hints of peach. Overall, mouthfeel is semi-dry, oily and smoothly effervescent, body is medium-full. Lip-smackingly hoppy aftertaste. Refreshing and drinkable. Nicely done.

I guess I was expecting a hop bomb from these guys. For an IIPA, I thought that the flavor was a little light. The finish was not as complex as I had hoped, being slightly sweet with a one dimensional hop bitterness. Not bad, but it didn’t wow me either.