Marshall Wharf Cant Dog Imperial IPA

Brewed by Marshall Wharf Brewing Co/Three Tides Restaurant
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Belfast, Maine USA

On tap at MW. This is your typical (although very well made) east coast big DIPA- pours a very deep dark amber with a nice fluffy tacky sticky head- good lace. Aroma is pine resin, sappy, grapefruit, citrus, pine needle, and light tropical notes- wtih a big caramel malt backbone- yet hops take priority here which is nice. Flavor is resinous tacky oily hops, pine, citrus, dankness, toast, crystal malt, and a great harsh resinout hoppy bitter finish. I really liked this one, although I liked all thier beers so that is no surprise. These guys love hops, and it shows in these beers. I wish someone opened that keg of cant dog at bctc this year now that I know how good it is.

My Bottom Line:
This chewy Double IPA’s sandy hop resins build lots of bitterness atop the peering alcohol, a union which creates cologne-like pine allusions within the straightforward pale malts.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A ring of foam surrounds the dark amber (darker than their Barley Wine, for example).
-This is definitely bulkier than their other Double IPA, Big Twitch.
-Malts could have offered more variety in flavor, but they still did their nourishing job rather efficiently.
-The soft carbonation was perfect to let all flavors be appreciated fully.

On tap at Three Tides.

on tap-pours an off white head with some lacing and amber color. Aroma is a nice pine/resin hops, some malt. Taste is lots of resin/pine hops-bitter, some medium malt, alcohol. Towards medium body with slightly slick mouth feel.

On cask at Novare Res. Pours an orange with a foamy off white head. The aroma is very pleasant, smells like either Amarillo or Centennial dry hopping :). The taste however was actually a letdown. I’ve had their big twitch IPA and it’s actually better than this. The malt profile was ok. Not sure what hops they used for bittering and flavor, but i’d consider adjusting those two a bit. There’s a bit of citrus here and a fair bitter end, but it’s just not quite balanced right. I hope to have this again at a later date and see a more mature IPA.

Pours dark orange with a 1 finger tan head. Nose is full of muted hops. Taste is big on the citrus, very sweet, with not a lot of hops in the taste, I like it overall.