Flying Dog tasting Leeds

Flying Dog’s Matt Brophy hosts a night of Beer Tasting at the Cross Keys in Leeds, organised by James Clay & Sons and North Bar.

Matt Brophy talks beer and Flying Dog to a beer guzzling audience

Being big lovers of Leeds and its reasonably eclectic beer scene, we were excited at Real Ale Reviews HQ when we heard about a special event at the Cross Keys in Leeds. None other than champions of the American craft brew scene and award winning brewery Flying Dog were coming to town to let us sample their beers.

Led by Matt Brophy – Executive Brewer at Flying Dog – with a little help from Nigel (Sales Director) from James Clay & Sons and Rick from Bier & Co – an evening of beer tasting and anecdotes soon followed.

We kicked off with some the legends and stories surrounding Flying Dog’s heritage – the brands origin after an unlikely ascent (and most poignantly subsequent descent) by Flying Dog’s founder George Stranahan, and the development of the brands distinctive and rebellious bottle designs courtesy of Ralph Steadman, thanks  a mutual friendship with the late Hunter D. Thompson – loads on this at the Flying Dog site).

Flying Dog in lovely Flying Dog glasses

It wasn’t long before the Flying Dogs themselves came out, spearheaded by the very light and typically drinkable Woody Creek White, a wit style Belgian ale. Matt assured his audience that Flying Dog’s beers were all designed to be drinkable, a commendable trait in any beer.

Following was Heat Wheat, a Hefe Weizen beer which was overloaded with banana aroma and taste. The wheat styles kept coming with the wonderfully labeled Garde Dog, a French style with a little more malt than its predecessors and less aromatic (bloomin’ nice it was!).

Woody Creek White, named after the town where Flying dog's founder still resides

Matt took us through more details of the Flying Dog set up whilst we supped these wheaty numbers, the brewery’s move to Frederick, Maryland when they acquired an ailing brewery. The original brewery no longer produces Flying Dog from its high altitude location near Aspen, with the new set up in Maryland working to an 80% capacity. With more of its ales hitting UK supermarket shelves us American ale fans might well be able to help up that capacity in the not too distant future!

The beers continued with the quirkily named (aren’t they all?!) Tire Bite, a Golden Ale to wash down the succulent scallops presented to us. I always knew the Cross Keys did great food (I

Scallops and golden ale, yum yum!

tucked into pigs cheeks and shrimps before this event, yum yum!) and on the night the team came up trumps with these. The beer was a bit nondescript, but it washed down the seafood well. A very easy step up from lager and with comparatively a lot more taste.

Old Scratch Amber Lager followed closely behind.

Flying Dog Old Scratch Amber Ale

It had a lot of bite for a lager with a deeper colour, a weirdly fruity, sweet nose and a crisp malt finish. Matt described this as smooth, which I couldn’t agree with on the night, in the bottle its carbonization made it a slightly harshly crisp and certainly no creamflow.

Dogtoberfest came next, a timely beer and a celebration of the German festival that seems to have made a comeback this year. This beer tasted great, not much aroma, a slight sweetness and more malt again. A dark aftertaste and a little more complex than the Golden Ale not long before.

Dogtoberfest Seasonal German Marzen Beer - all German hops and malt

Back to Belgian styles (Matt assured us that the Belgian’s don’t like it if you call your beers Belgian!) and Kerberos Tripel made with candy sugar for that authentic taste. This was served up with the Cross Key’s partridge with blackberry toast, a venerable treat indeed. A fine pairing with interesting sweetness and lingering juicy flavours.

At this point (a fair few bottles of beer sunk now as our table went from 8 members to 5!) the beers seemed to be flying in much quicker and given that we had pretty much a bottle each and the strength of those hoppy beers I knew would soon be on the way, the note taking got a bit sporadic at this point.

Kerberos Tripel - a candy sugar beer

Road Dog Porter was the last beer I had a really good go at, a terrifically smoky ale with a sweet aftertaste (many of the Flying Dog beers do share some sweet characteristics). A crisp Porter on the finish with a nice tangy aftertaste and highly drinkable – but not up there with some of the stockier English porters. Pummellling our tastebuds immediately afterwards was the Horn Dog Barley Wine, its alcohol tastes on a pedestal and its consistency thicker than its peers. One for the odd occasion rather than a session.

The pounding hop fest of Double Dog IPA followed swiftly, and here’s where the hops started to appear. Before I’d even had time to write anything down Gonzo Imperial Porter arrived along with a coffee desert that I hadn’t much time for (I’m not a coffee fan most of the time). The porter made a better impression than the road Dog, scrummy and smoky.

Matt gets the spanish Inquisition from some beer lovers

Dog Schwartz lager continued the smokalicious trend and was very good, balanced, drinkable and weirdly refreshing (perhaps following the porter?)

A lively evening was gaining speed rapidly and my beer drinking wasn’t, and as I realized that I’d completely missed Snake Dog and only had a whole bottle each of Gonzo, Road Dog, Dog Schwartz and the Barley Wine stacked up in front of me, with no other takers, the last thing I needed was a pint sized carton of beer materializing in front of me.

The large yellow ‘Take Your Beer Home’ tetra-paks looked like a boy racer version of the milk carton from Blur’s Coffee & TV video and a little ripple of excitement rippled around the room. Flying Dog’s 20^th anniversary beer, Raging Bitch was unveiled to us in its quirky and hot-off-the-press glory. Hoppy as hell, bursting with grapefruit you can see why it’s served up as breakfast juice.

Rick from Bier & Co shows off a carton of Raging Bitch, Flying Dog's 20th Anniversary ale

Oohs and aahs were heard as the tasting began and continued and really at this point dissolved into a bit of a group session.

The festivities were well under way and last formalities concluded as I tried to make sure I’d tasted everything. The chaps on my table were looking pretty jovial as they round off the remaining spare bottles and I jumped up to take photos of Nigel from James Clay presenting some Flying Dog awards. Once everyone was congratulated and the dubious ‘prizes’ distributed to a cacophony of giggles and innuendo (including Flying Dog underwear sorry I don’t have a pic, it didn’t come out – and a multitude of Flying Dog condoms) the party atmosphere stepped up a gear.

As the last ales were tasted and everyone got chatting it wasn’t long before we ended up with taxis to North Bar for night caps and further refreshments. My note taking had ended long before but the fun continued (thanks to Leigh’s post for confirming some of the beer order that I was deliberating over!). I woke up the next day a little later than I’d hoped for and with a back pocket stuffed with bright coloured contraception. Must have been a good ‘un!

A fantastic night had by all and a big thanks to James Clay, Flying Dog, Bier & Co, North Bar, The Cross Keys and everyone there on the night.

Flying Dog's Matt finishes his beer talk to a round of applause