Hold onto your hats, we’re off again with another offering from Flying Dog…this time it’s the charmingly named Raging Bitch. As I said previously I’m kinda liking Flying Dog’s style (if maybe not all of their beers)
I was particularly interested in trying this one as it’s a US IPA made with Belgian yeast and I like an IPA, and I most definitely like Belgian beer too…
Raging bitch pours with a really charming looking sparkly dense head and has a really lovely amber colour about it. Extraordinarily, the Belgian yeast is detectable in the aroma from over a foot away; in my book that’s a very good thing indeed.
On the nose I got clean floral hops and some of the sweet Belgian yeast phenolics, plus a nice background dose of bready malt too.
To be quite honest I expected the hops to leap and punch me on the nose in the typical IPA manner, but they didn’t…but I guess too much hoppiness would rob one of that pure joy that is a nice Belgian yeast aroma.
The aftertaste has a lovely lasting hop note and echoes of the Belgian character. There’s also a good long, lasting, bitterness too.
It’s all very interesting but I just don’t know if the hop-forward and yeast-forward styles can be melded together like this. I guess, a bit like Magic Rock’s Dark Arts, it’s something that I’ll have to try and reconcile as I taste, enjoy and re-evaluate many more bottles of it.
Definitely worth a punt if you should see it…
yeastismybitch 
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