Brewery: Flying Dog
Location: Frederick, Maryland, USA
ABV: 5.5%
Version: Bottled
Source: Tesco

[Part two of a Flying Dog Triple, along with Gonzo Imperial Porter]

Flying Dog’s Classic Pale Ale was originally called “Doggie Style” but I’ve heard the name was changed to protect the innocent shoppers in Tesco, when a UK distribution deal was recently done. And that’s where I found this one in the course of a recent stocking-up sweep.

Colour-wise, Classic Pale Ale turned out to be a fair bit darker than the name might suggest, more amber than golden, quite similar to Old Skratch Amber Lager in fact. Classic Pale Ale had a fresher, sharper aroma though and there was a lot more hoppiness in the flavour. There was a grassy note in there as well, and some fruit: notably peach and apricot.

All in all it was a very fresh, refreshing, enjoyable beer. I had another bottle when I was out the other night: I spotted one in the fridge at the Knott Bar in Manchester and ended the night with a re-visit. Chilled, the flavour wasn’t quite as complex a straight out of the cupboard. Still extremely pleasant though and a great one to end the night on.

Two successes out of two for the Flying Dog selection so far. Next up, it’s the finale: Gonzo Imperial Porter.

Our local (Prestwich, Manchester) branch of Tesco has scored poor to middling for its bottled real ale section for some time, but I usually stroll down the appropriate aisle on the optimistic, but usually-disappointed, off-chance that they’ve managed to stock something interesting for a change.

So I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I wandered on by and discovered a scattering of ‘NEW!’ shelf-tags in the section. Pick of the bunch had to be two from Flying Dog, not only their pack-leading Classic Pale Ale but also one of their speciality brews: Gonzo Imperial Porter. At 8.7% I’m betting that one packs something of a wallop and I’m looking forward to trying it (£2.49 a bottle, by the way, and I think it was £1.69 for the Classic Pale).

I also picked up a bottle of Budweiser Budvar Dark Lager, on the grounds that there’s always room for another Czech dark lager in the beer cupboard. And then, crossing the aisle to the UK real ale in a bottle section, I spotted a few that were new to Tesco but that I’d either already sampled or seen in Sainsburys. Although the, up in the top-right corner, I spotted a few bottles of Morrissey Fox Brunette, so I grabbed one of those for sampling as well. The beer cupboard is once again full to over-flowing and there’s another consignment on the way from BrewDog as well. I know, I know, I really need to drink more…

But yeah, anyway, head on down to your local Tesco – you might be able to pick up something new and interesting. And speaking of supermarkets, have Sainsbury’s cancelled this year’s real ale competition / promotion or something? Not a sniff of it in our local branch, and I haven’t heard anything about it on my regular-read blogs, either. Anyone know what happened there?