I miss Clay Pipe...

At work, I participate in a semiannual baking competition that happens after lunch, every payday. It's tiered like the NCAA Basketball Championship, and is quite fun. This iteration of the game, I decided to make Kriek marshmallows, Witbier cookies and a dark chocolate-stout drizzle sauce. As part of the potential "ingredients" for my chocolate sauce, I bought a series of stouts: Dragonhead, Bourbon Barrel Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, Chocolate Indulgence, Cappuccino Stout and Double Chocolate Stout. Per Rachel's suggestion, I went with Orkney Brewery's Dragonhead Stout given the lower alcohol content, 4% ABV.

That left me with a quandary of what to drink, after I made the sauce. (Because the Dragonhead was long gone...) I decided that Pub Dog would be my first stop.

At the local beer festivals, I have never been impressed with their stuff; but I saw the "artisanal limited" release part and thought what the hell, perhaps they have made improvements?

Well, what the hell?!?

I poured it into my pint glass, because I was not going to go anywhere last night. It came out black and imparted a pretty dense tan head with absolutely no retention. I held it up to the light and was able to catch ruby notes around the edges of the beer--not good for this style (which I would call a foreign extra on oak), in my book.

I took a quick few sniffs and caught some roast, some vanilla and not much else. What comes after sniffing? Tasting!

The beer is overwhelming; strictly by flavor. Putting beer in a bourbon barrel imparts a ton of flavor on its own; adding vanilla, cocoa nibs and spices are unnecessary, let the beer speak for itself. Well, this one was screaming at me in a very unpleasant way. It really shocked my palette with this crazy acidic burn, which I think would come from too much roasted grain. I didn't get any off flavors from it, which is why I am discounting it being infected. The beer was also very thin in the mouthfeel, and not creamy at all, which I would have most certainly hoped for in this ale.

You may ask, what on Earth does the title of this post have to do with the text I've written? Well, Clay Pipe was my favorite local brewery (as I do live in Maryland); and I lived for some Backfin Pale Ale and Hopocalypse. Those were my guaranteed go-to locals. When the owner of Clay Pipe decided to start contract brewing out of a Flying Dog, in Frederick, Md, he sold the Clay Pipe facility to Pub Dog, so they could provide beer to their two brewpubs. And truth be told, they do not hold a candle to the beer that Clay Pipe put on the market: Backfin, Blue Tractor, Hopocalypse and Pursuit of Happiness (which I have one of the last 6-packs of!).

So, Pub Dog still rides in the bed of the truck.

Overall: 3/10.

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