Hair of the Dog Blue Dot Double IPA

Brewed by Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Portland, Oregon USA

Cloudy yellow colour with a small white head. Hoppy citric aroma with a pineapple fruityness. Hoppy bitter flavor with a citric fruity note. Dry and quite bitter finish.

Any first impressions?
-A veil of foam shields the hazy, honeyed gold.
-Confident pineapple esters coagulate into a unique fruity honey which lets itself be penetrated by some agile piney hops.
-Sandy hoppiness lays a dry foundation on the tongue for the haystacks to sit; fruity cereal is abundant.
-The soft yet expansive effervescence is typical of Hair of the Dog, particularly when paired with their usual creamy maltiness.

What if you dig deeper?
-The herbal, peppery hop bitterness, apart from being flavorful, is certainly intriguing.
-Biscuity maltiness is a great companion to the idiosyncratic hop selection.
-I probably wouldn’t have called an Imperial IPA, but if you know and like the vivid, bright personality of Alan Sprints’ gambrinal creations, you will be seduced once again by this one.

Bottle; no date.

Bottled. Light golden coloured. Unclear. Dense off white head. Pines, herbs and flowers in the nose. Very dense and intense, almost too much. Flavour is aggresively herbal. Is piney and citric. Seems a bit off balance. Could use a bit sweetness to counter the intense hoppyness. Medium to full bodied. Very dry. Citric very bitter end. This is a very special brew, that takes some time to come over. Good though IMO.

Courtesy of bu11zeye. Pours gold with a generous whote head. Smells of nice balanced citrus, flowers and caramel. Tastes lightly tangy with a great hoppy balance. Wish I could say more, but I’m too busy enjoying this one.

Tap at Spuyten Duyvil. hazy pale amber beer with a thin white head. Big hop aroma. Much more tropical and fruity than Pliny the Elder. Cascadey, grapefruity aroma. Some berryish notes as well. As it warms a bit of grassiness becomes apparent. Flavour is okay, but not great. The grassiness seems to dominate the hop flavour profile and there is a slightly oxidized note apparent in the malts. There are some orange and light resiny flavours as well. Long lingering bitterness through the finish. I bet this was better a few months ago.

Had at Horse Brass, July 2005. Murky yellow color, odd appearance for an IPA or double IPA, but still appealing. Very earthy and gritty hop leaf nose, fresh and strong hop perfume, like sticking your nose in a big bag of hops, literally. Oily texture, and a little thin compared to most IIPAs, but still light and crisp... very leafy and crisp hop flavor, without much else evident... hops hops hops. I love them, but this beer is ALL hops, but at least not in a harsh or aggressive way, such as Hercules. Palate is surprisingly smooth, while still having that gritty, earthy hop cone texture and flavor.

Bottle. Lots of small floaties in this one, messing up the nice golden color a bit. Off-white head. Mostly hoppy aroma, with pines and fruits. The flavor is quite bitter, with fruits, orange, pine, some malt, and peppery hops. Quite carbonated, medium to full mouthfeel. Definately a good beer, but as with many American (I)IPA’s, I miss balance. (070705)

This is a good ale, but I think the only reason that it’s listed on the site as an Imperial IPA is because that’s what HotD (a most reputable brewer) calls it. Hophead that I am, I have a real hard time believing the claim of 100 IBUs. Its body is a hazy straw color that starts out with a BIG fizzy head, but that diminishes to less than one finger, although that remains throughout the drinking. The aroma is dominated by a very sweet light malt with grapefruit and lemon trying to balance it out. Fairly light bodied for the style - IPA or DIPA. The first thing that hits you in the flavor is a light and sweet caramel. A citric bitterness pushes forward and takes over, but there’s no way that it’s as bitter as HotD claims. The finish is a balance of sweet and bitter... not what I’m looking for in an IIPA.

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