Doggie Claws, IPA, Clovenator

After a little hiatus, here I am, with three new beers to blog about. Along with the two beers Ryan posted about earlier, I brought back another two beers from my trip back to Oregon. The first being from the small but superb Hair of the Dog brewery. Their Blue Dot Imperial IPA is still one of my favorite beers. I had high hopes going into Doggie Claws, their version of a barelywine. Unfortunately, my stupidity led me to pour the yeast at the bottom of the bottle into both mine and Ryan's glass. See, Hair of the Dog beers are bottle conditioned, meaning they will continue to age if you let it. This also means there is a bunch of yeast at the bottom of the bottle that you aren't supposed to pour into your glass. I was looking forward to this beer too, recieving an average of A- from BeerAdvocate. What I can tell you though is that the beer looks to have had a golden color. The taste also had a strong carmel flavor to it but because of my mistake, I cannot properly give my opinion on the beer. Maybe next time.

Anyways, the second beer I brought back was the West Coast IPA by Green Flash Brewery. This beer smelled great. It had a great strong hop smell that I liked. The beer poured a golden orange with an off white head. One first taste, you will realize that all the citrus hops you smelled was just a preview of what was to come. This is a seriously hoppy beer. It was also a seriously bitter beer, leaving a bitterness that stayed at the back of my tongue. It was like I had a sour candy in my mouth, constantly making it water. There is some sweetness up front but it quickly fades into a citrusy hop kick. Now, I like hoppy beers, but this is even a little too bitter for me. It didn't have enough of a malty backbone to balance out the hops. This beer is definitly a sipper.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to a local restaurant here to celebrate a friend's birthday. The restaurant specializes in Austrian food and has probably the largest portions ever. Anyways, to my surprise, they also brew beer! Well, technically they aren't a brewery as they don't have a liquor license (BYOB), but the employees are brewers themselves. We were given a free sample of a new beer one of them had brewed. I don't remember much of the color other than it was fairly dark. It was supposed to be brewed in the style of a winter warmer. I was also told that the nickname given to the beer was the "clovenator". I tried it and, wow, what an aptly named beer. Cloves were pretty much the only thing you tasted. It wasn't a bad beer, just unique.

Until next time, here's a few pictures of the beers Ryan and I talked about.