Napa Smith Lost Dog

Brewed by Napa Smith Brewery
Style: Amber Ale
Napa, California USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

12 ounce bottle from Total Wine West Richmond, VA. Pours a slighty hazy amber color with a medium sized frothy off-white head. Decent head retention. Aroma of caramel malts, earthy notes, stone fruits and faint hops. The taste is earthy notes, caramel, plums, bitter hops, toasted notes. Medium bodied.

Hazy reddish-copper with a decent sized light khaki head. Plenty of lacing. Aroma of pine, grapes, chocolate and earth. Taste is malty with a little sweet chocolate and fruit and a slight bitterness. Medium bodied and slightly dry with soft carbonation.

Bottle. Pours clear red with off-white head. Aroma of hoppy citrus, fruit, very faint hint of vegetable and light malt. Flavor is much the same with a light bitter in finish. medium body with medium carbonation. Not bad but not a fan.

Appearance: dark cherry woods and cherry skins. A bready head fades into a thin head with random bubbly puddles. Swirls with a thick collar.
Nose: grapes and plums with their pits and skins included. Whispers of chocolate mingle with said grapes and plums. Moss and tree bark. Sunflower seeds and nuts. Rhubarb.
Palate: nuts and cacao beans in the back. Grapes, plums, and rhubarb along the sides, finish with an affirmative hold on my tastebuds at the back of each swallow. Cocoa and chocolate crisps in the breath. Essence of a fine Porto – woodsy winey old-word presence. Love the dry earthen nutty quality of the plum pits.
Final Thoughts: I went into this beer not sure what to expect. I had first tasted it at the first of hopefully many more beer tastings at my local ABC and I really couldn’t remember what it had tasted like. I was socializing more than studying so the many beers I did taste kind of flew on by. Enjoying the Lost Dog at home in a more quietly intimate environment, she cast off the shyness and opened herself to me fully. It was love at first taste. Delicious! A more than everyday beer I’d be glad to have in my fridge anytime.

Bottle @ home. Actually pretty cloudy, dark orange appearance with a small, light brown head. Why is it so cloudy? Dusty, weedy (like the bad weeds not WEEEEEED), burnt caramel malty, nasty aroma. A little spicy, burnt caramel malty, soapy, biscuity flavor. Yuck...drain pour.

Pours a semi-transparent, appetizing mahogany-brown; there was not much head, but this was an artifact of the pour. Malty aroma has notes of cloves and wood plus a hint of apple. Strong, malty flavor has a firm fruity tone that is mainly apple and pear with a hint of banana, as well as touches of cloves and hops. Smooth, robust-bodied texture is fairly fizzy and leaves a malty, woody finish.

Pours copper with a thin white head. It has a very thin body and a very mild, slightly metallic - slightly hoppy taste. The aroma is very mild, but slightly hoppy. Overall, just a very bland beer that doesn’t accomplish much.

Pours kind of a dark yellow. Where’s the Red of this Red Ale? And they call it hoppy? Where’s the Hops? All I smell and taste is Malt. Light lace around the edge. taste is OK, and aftertaste is somewhat funky.