Laughing Dog Dogzilla Black IPA
This is the second beer from Laughing Dog Simply Beer has reviewed. Previously we had looked at the 127 IBU monster, Alpha Dog, now we take a look at the black dog in the pack. Dogzilla is Laughing Dog’s Black IPA. This style of beer has been attempted by several breweries, including Southern Tier. It is basically an IPA with Dark malt, or is it a Porter with lots of aroma Hops? I don’t know, but I think this one is more of the latter.
Appearance:
This beer has a serious case of lacing, that’s a good thing! It poured with a monstrous head, that slowly dissipated over a couple minutes leaving a ton of foam the side of my glass. The beer itself is a dark, porter like with ruby hues when held to the light.
Dogzilla Black IPA
Aroma:
Really like the aroma on this beer, it was very hoppy as expected, but had a bits of chocolate, licorice, plum, and raisin on the nose. Every so often a caught a faint wisp of coffee.
Taste:
The beer starts off malty, with notes of chocolate and caramel that slowly merge into that typical IPA citrus / grapefruit. Then finishes very bitter with some of the black patent malt burnt flavor. This burnt flavor is more of like what you would find in a porter. The bitterness in this beer, continues to build after each sip, I needed to take time in between sips to moderate the bitterness.
Calories: at 6.9% abv, this beer would have 210 -240 calories per 12/oz (Calorie Chart)
Glassware: Pint, Nonic, Tulip
Overall Impression:
Enjoyed the aroma with this beer and the flavors were pretty good, but the bitterness really became to much for me. If you’ve had this did you have an issue with the burnt/bitterness?
I’ve recently had Southern Tier’s black IPA and it was fantastic. It had a bitter finish as well, but a rich and warm one. This one sounds like it starts well and then falls apart a bit.
@jim, I was entranced by the aroma and let down by the flavor. It wasn’t an expensive beer, ~$7, 22oz at the Liquor Outlet. I drank the whole bottle, if you liked the Southern Tier, you will at least find this interesting.
Well, You have read my review, and know my thoughts, but I thought it was very good, complex and well crafted. I like a bitter beer. That said, that is probably why I really enjoyed this beer. Where did you find out the ABV and the calorie content? It wasn’t on my bottle, and I checked the web site and found nothing about this beer. I sent an e-mail to Fred Colby to find this out, but he hasn’t replied yet. I was glad to see with the exception of the aroma, and the ordering of the flavors we were in pretty much agreement about everything else. Makes me think I might be getting better at this reviewing thing!
I’m glad you enjoyed this beer. What would be the point if we all liked the same thing? I got the ABV from the BeerAdvocate website and used the calorie chart that I’ve created to “Estimate” the calories in a beer.
I find the hardest part about the reviewing is translating taste flavors and smells into words, but I don’t think any of your reviews have been bad. (unless you were disagreeing with me! 🙂
Wow! 7 bucks! I paid $3.50! I guess trucking it across the country instead of just the 500 or so miles from Sandpoint makes a bit of difference on the price!