Beereview: Alpha Dog Imperial IPA

Have I mentioned how awesome my wife is? So we were on the other side of town, and truth be told, I had no clue where I was. Well the wife described it as "right down the street from Total Wine." That just got me all sorts of excited. In case you don't know, Total Wine is my biggest source for all the crazy beers you've never heard of. I think when she told me, she already knew we were going to have to go. I just looked at her and she's like "of course we can." Awesome! Well usually when I'm in Total Wine I come out with 3 or 4 22 oz. bottles for around 20 bucks. Typically one of them will be 8 to 10 bucks, and then the rest to fill out the order.

Well we walk down then isle, and i pick 3 out. I'm ready to go when she says "how bout this one?" Ok... sure. "How about this one?" Hm. Yep. "This one?" Hell yes. Before I knew it I'm walking out the store with 6 bottles of beer at a cost of just over 40 bucks. She didn't even think twice. Rock!

Needless to say we both have a soft spot for dogs, so when we see a beer with a dog on the label, we can't pass it up. It's almost as bad as when we accidentally go to PetSmart on dog adoption day... No. No. It's not nearly that bad...

Put together a dog on the label and an IPA and Nikki's hooked like a teen on an unlimited texting plan. The truth is I'm actually writing this because she says she's trying one of the new beers whether I write about it our not. Which brings us to our beereview of Alpha Dog Imperial IPA. Alpha Dog is bottled by Laughing Dog Brewing out of Ponderay, Idaho (where the F#*(%@ is that? no matter...). This Imperial IPA weighs in just on the light side of the imperial IPA spectrum at 8.5%. The bottle is pretty simple. No funny quotes, quips, or excerpts. Just a wolf. With creepy green eyes. Representative of hops? Probably not, but that's the 9th grade english class coming out of me (a class full of opinion questions, each with only one right answer). Wife's breathing down my neck, lets crack this pig.

This IPA pours a dark amber color. The head on the glass is thick as the fog in King's The Mist. The aroma is a strangly sweet hop, not the typical pound of American Cascade. The beer drinks sweet and smooth. Not as dry as your standard IPA, but leaves the same amount of chew in your mouth. The bitterness is not as intense as Stone's Arrogant Bastard, but certainly on it's way. The wife describes the beer as "good, sweet, oaky, with a peculiar sweet and toasty aftertaste."

I like this beer. It's not terribly unique, but has an interesting aftertaste. Let me know if you've had it! Post below!