Flying Dog Horn Dog Barley Wine

Brewed by Flying Dog Brewery
Style: Barley Wine
Frederick, Maryland USA

Serve in Snifter

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Bottle courtesy of Okbeer: Poured a deep brown color ale with a small foamy head with some retention and light lacing. Aroma of sugar is so pronounced that it gets quite gross and doesn’t allow for any other aspects of the beer to come through. Taste is also dominated by the sweetness and doesn’t allow much else to come through. I didn’t notice any large hops presence which could have mitigated some of the sweetness. Average body with some medium-low carbonation. Definitely not something that I feel the need to revisit anytime soon.

Opening with a faint hiss, the bottle dispenses its murky, blood red contents, devoid of any carboantion or foam. Aromas progress from toasty, molasses-y malt to intense fruit… concentrated pear, watermelon, and fig… then incense, and an alcohol assault like a swarm of bees. The beer tastes overly sweet, syrupy and plummy, and finishes with an unpleasant tension between black coffee and bubblegum flavors. It is perhaps the sweetest barley-based libation I’ve tasted. An equally ambiguous aftertaste flaunts intense anise, roasty/woody, and yeasty/cantaloupe characters… plus a blossoming ethanol nova. Sticky, lead-heavy heft ensures maximum flavor hangtime. Horn Dog takes high gravity beer to unpleasant excess… any carbonation at all would have resulted in a palatable quadrupel; otherwise, I would consider it an ice cream topping.

Cocoa and soy are apparent in the sweet, bozzey aroma. Opaque brown body with a very slight, off white head that dissipates immediately. Soy, chocolate and vinous, fruity flavours with leafy hops and some sherry-like oxidation. Medium full body with fair carbonation. Bottle (2003 Vintage) sampled at Peculier Pub in NYC with Olivier_MTL and Rastacouere.

UPDATED: DEC 28, 2006 A lot lighter (body) and more dry than I’d expect from a barleywine. Didnt taste very fresh, curious to try it on tap.

Weak aroma with too much astringency. Dark amber color with only a slight head (typical of most Barley Wines). Some dried fruit taste, but mostly alcohol dominates. Very thin palate.

very dark brown toward a solid black. Very bitter kick at the end. Very malty. Reminded me to much of a regular red wine for my likening. Was overall good, just not my type of beer.

Well it was a lot darker than other barley wines I have tried. Very strong for a little bottle. Oats and licorice just didn’t do it for me.

unknown vintage
Leather brown to red body, no head. No lacing.
Sweet and syrupy like aromas. Fruity.
Strong almost solvent-like alcohol. Malt and good hop flavor are overwhelmed by alcohol.
Slightly cloying and somewhat rough mouthfeel.

Bottle from Utobeer. Hazy ruby colour. Not sure that many hops really work with the malts which are syrupy nor the alcohol. Bit soapy on aroma. Hot alcohol and then some syrup and some very thing bitterness. Not a great barley wine. After JW Lees Harvest ale 2003, this is a bit uncultured and a bruiser. Hops are too metallic. fruit comes from the syrupy malts. Poor for its style. Would I have it again? No.

12 oz bottle, 2004A vintage, consumed 12/14/06. Pours a murky dark brown with some mahogany highlights under a minimal whispy beige head that ran to a thin ring of large bubbles. Aroma is of thick slightly syrupy malt with hints of sherry like oxidation. Light alcohol and cardboard notes as well. Flavor is a little too hefty on the oxidation for the minimal breadth of this beer. A little coffee, toffee, cardboard, and alcohol remain. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and a little thinned out in texture due to the age. Carbonation is moderately fizzy but still quite soft. Overall, this just can’t stand up to aging at all. Didn’t really intend on aging it, I must have got it with some age already on it then let it sit for about 6 more months in my cellar.