Double Dog Double Pale Ale

Double Dog Double Pale AleFlying Dog‘s Double Dog Double Pale Ale is one of the Canis Major series of (extreme) beers that I received in the promo pack earlier this month. I’ve been seeing reviews of this beer pop up occasionally on the blogs and they’ve all been positive so I was eager to try this one out.

This truly is a "double" pale ale: 10.5% alcohol by volume! (The website says 11.5, but 10.5 is what’s on the bottle.) Not only have they doubled up on the malt bill, but on the hops as well; this is intended to be a big beer all around.

You’ll notice that the glassware I chose has the Stone Brewing logo on it… it’s Stone India Pale Ale, in fact, and it’s the only glass of this type that I have, so… No offense guys (Neal!), but it got a little cross-branded. Social networking or something, see.

Appearance: Pretty, coppery-amber color with a substantial, firm off-white head on top. Leaves lacing along the sides of the glass.

Smell: Reminds me of a barleywine in aroma, though hoppier. Spun sugar sweetness of big malt and big alcohol.

Taste: Holy smokes, big on the tongue too! This is screaming, "Barleywine!" every step of the way—"DPA" or no. (This is not a bad thing, by any means.) Malty-sweet and bold and sticky-rich. Lots of spicy hops here too, and the prickly warming notes of alcohol blooming on the tongue.

Mouthfeel: See that last line; warming, spicy, prickly. Full-bodied and almost syrupy and finishes nice and dry and lingering pleasantly.

Overall: Excellent beer, this is probably my favorite from Flying Dog. It’s really good. A barleywine by any other name…

On BeerAdvocate, it scores a well-deserved grade of A-. Likewise RateBeer, where it scores 3.83 out of 5 and is in their 97th percentile.

5 comments

  1. Just picked up a pack of these today. Great stuff, -very- full-flavored and hoppy. In other words, perfect for those who appreciate the style.

    Has a very distinctive alcohol-flavored finish, which I also enjoyed, though I can see how it would turn some people off.

    Nice review, cheers!

  2. I couldn’t agree more about the barely wine comparison. I’ve now had this on three different occasions and the amount of alcohol, lower carbonation, and the sweetness just sat there with you. It’s a delicious drink, but not at all what I was expecting from a double pale ale. In retrospect, it felt a little under hopped or something, just not a lot of balance given there presentation of this as a dry hopped and hoppy. With that said, I would drink it all day if I had the tolerance. I could see this becoming a ‘oaked’ and becoming a small bottle feature.

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