I guess there are really TWO Belgian-IPA styles.
One is the more assertively C-hopped Belgian Golden Ale.
The other is an American IPA recipe fermented with one of thosekinky Belgian yeast strains.

This is the latter.

Appearance: poured comfortably from a chilled bottle into a standard wine glass the ale is mildly amber and tops with a froth head. Nice pacing. Head holds up after settling from pour, remain a constant feature until finish. A picture-perfect beer.

Aroma: crisp Belgian action. I smell it as tart, mild banana notes, Christmas spice, then some lemon and grapefruit. Interest combination. Malt finally protrudes with some sweet and slightly toasted notes. Very inviting, but clearly a lot is going on.

Flavor: Sweet. But that’s only a background feature, granted a staple of every sip. Kinky, wild, untamed phenols bite through, forcing you to acknowledge Belgian yeast CAN stand up to American hops. They carry over the tongue and leave a puckering feeling on the side of the mouth.
Juicy citrus hops soon take over and you really wanna pucker. There are more aggressive IPA’s, but this one can hang. Prickly battering hops then takeover. As this beer drinks the bitterness becomes more forward and the other features mellow/mute each other.
Minor alcohol warming in the finish.

Man, oh man, she has got a bite! But its a very satisfying beer and definitely interesting.

Mothfeel: nice and lean…. really that’s where these two styles meet. I like a big beer, but I can’t know I’m drinking a big beer. Alcohol should be muted, malts should be of premium quality and kept in balance, and the beer should finish DRY. RAGING BITCH pulls that off.
It’s lean, crisp and balanced. Sure, the hops and phenols are all over the place, and there’s Crystal and Toasted malt to be detected, but the body of the beer holds on responsibly.
The way this beer drinks makes it a success, otherwise the hopping and yeast profile would’ve been in vain.

Conclusion: Got dayum, a prickly beer. This one might be catalogued in the “Love it-or-Hate it” category. Personally I loved it, as did the guys I drank it with, but none felt we could drink more than one except if really in the mood.

It’s like HEDONISM resort, a kinky trip to the tropics. Most will say they prefer the other Belgian-IPA format, a Belgian Strong Pale Ales with C-hops: Pyrat and Houston Chouffe come to mind. But I think that’s because they’re attempting something more subtle and can be all hoity-toity, as opposed to an IN YO’ JOKA’ FACE brew from yet-another American Micro-brewery.

Give this one a try! While a bit crude, and definitely from deep in left field Flying Dog is onto big things with this one!

This entry was posted on February 28, 2012 at 9:13 am and is filed under Featured Posts, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.