Flying Dog Raging Bitch

Hello Friends,

It's been a few weeks since I last blogged beer ... but don't be worried, I've had several good beers in that span and plan to post a couple times this week. The beer I'm reviewing here is the Flying Dog Raging Bitch. My co-worker Shaun introduced this beer to me. He was so enthusiastic about this beer, he insisted on giving me a bottle if I promised to blog about it. How could I say no to that? I was excited to try this beer because it comes from one of my favorite breweries. Ever since I learned that Flying Dog won medium size brewery of the year at the Great American Beer Festival in 2009 I have tried several of their beers and have not been disappointed. The Raging Bitch is categorized as a Belgian-style IPA. I love Belgian beers and I love IPAs, but I didn't realize you could mix those styles. Flying Dog's website says that it's an American IPA that's augmented with a Belgian yeast. Interesting. Let's see what I thought about it...

I took the beer with me on a trip back home to my parents in Fenton, MI and divied it up into four sampling glasses; one for my dad, mom, Meghan, and myself. The beer poured a rich amber color with a nice, fluffy head. The hoppy aroma hit me immediately, but I also noted florals and sweetness. I took a big first sip. The citrus notes were powerful and made me think of grapefruit. At the same time, there were strong grassy, hoppy flavors. I also was able to pick up on the belgian yeast, which combined with the tartness and hoppiness really made this beer complex. This beer was 8.3% alcohol, and while I could pick up on the ethanol in the aftertaste, I would have pegged this beer at a lower %Alc.

Overall, this was an excellent beer that was right up my alley. I give it a 9.6 out of 10. Thanks Shaun!

Cheers,

Zack