Flying Dogs..

Found a sixer of Flying Dogs Pale Ale today on my commute home from San Anton...Man I like this stuff. Anyone know how they hop this sucker. Dang, its good...even if its from Colorado.

Yeah, they've got a couple of good brews, but I like the Pale Ale the best. Dunno about hopping, but did you notice that the cover art is from Ralph Steadman? He of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and several other of Hunter S. Thompson's books.

Sudster said:

Found a sixer of Flying Dogs Pale Ale today on my commute home from San Anton...Man I like this stuff. Anyone know how they hop this sucker. Dang, its good...even if its from Colorado.

Click to expand...

There's a large quantity of brews that come out of Colorado that are great. I'm not a big IPA fan but I do enjoy Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat and their Tire Biter Golden (I think that's the name).

Their Gonzo porter was stellar as well.

We get Flying Dog here as well. I have tried their Amber Lager and it was pretty good. I haven't had a chance to try any of the others yet. I think the label art is pretty cool too.

I've only tried their IPA - I think it's called Snake Dog IPA - and thought it was pretty decent. Gotta dig the artwork for sure

I know it is dry hopped with Cascade in the Pale Ale. It says it right on the web site.

According to this site it's Ralph Steadman, but they do give mention to Hunter S. Thompson being a similar style artist.

LupusUmbrus said:

According to this site it's Ralph Steadman, but they do give mention to Hunter S. Thompson being a similar style artist.

Click to expand...

Sorry Lupus...I didn't read far enough in this post....so I changed mine to something relevant.....

No prob. What browser are you using btw, orrelse? Firefox is throwing fits drawing their page for me.

For the money, I think their IPA is one of the best available. Their pale is really good, too.

They do have some affiliation with Hunter S. Thompson, too. I don't recall what, exactly, but I believe the owners were friends of his. Hence the "Gonzo" porter.

Sam75 said:

They do have some affiliation with Hunter S. Thompson, too. I don't recall what, exactly, but I believe the owners were friends of his. Hence the "Gonzo" porter.

Click to expand...

HERE is some more info on that.

Awesome, thanks for the link.

northern brewer and cascade hops. anyone who is down on CO beers is just jealous...especially if theyre from TX i lived in austin for 20 long years and its much better here (beer speaking--screw having to drive to central market to buy a decent beer).

drengel said:

anyone who is down on CO beers is just jealous...especially if theyre from TX

Click to expand...

I'm pretty impressed with the stuff from Avery. I finally found this year's Czar today...and a sixer of Old Jubilation too.

drengel said:

northern brewer and cascade hops. anyone who is down on CO beers is just jealous...especially if theyre from TX i lived in austin for 20 long years and its much better here (beer speaking--screw having to drive to central market to buy a decent beer).

Click to expand...

I am jealous and Texan. I understand that Colorado is our "Brewing Capital" of the US. But, most of those guys up there are like you ..they're from Texas.

H.E.B. started carrying Flying Dog. I about dropped to see that one sixer of FD Pale ale sitting there . I just hate to see stray lonely dogs. So I took them all home.

Thanks for the hop info.

LupusUmbrus said:

According to this site it's Ralph Steadman, but they do give mention to Hunter S. Thompson being a similar style artist.

Click to expand...

What I meant to say is that he illustrated many of Hunter's books. Hunter was the writer, Steadman was the artist. Everyone should read "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" if they haven't.

Recently Costco, at least in southern california had a case of Flying Dog that was an assortment of 6 different beers in it. It had the pale ale, golden ale, hefeweizen, IPA, porter, and the amber lager. That was the first time I had tried anything from them and I must agree that the Pale Ale and the IPA are pretty good. If there is a costco near, you might want to check it out.

Thanks Brewsmith, I'll check it out...gotta Costco card...going to go see if I can use it for thrice...

ORRELSE said:

HERE is some more info on that.

Click to expand...

Just got to the site ORRELSE....it is awesome. THX.

brewsmith said:

Recently Costco, at least in southern california had a case of Flying Dog that was an assortment of 6 different beers in it. It had the pale ale, golden ale, hefeweizen, IPA, porter, and the amber lager. That was the first time I had tried anything from them and I must agree that the Pale Ale and the IPA are pretty good. If there is a costco near, you might want to check it out.

Click to expand...

They didn't have it at my local Costco, but they did have a Sam Adams Holiday Collection 24pk for $20. I didn't like the Cranberry Lambic too much, but the rest of them I really liked.

ESkram, just saw this. How ya doin Man? I like Sam Adams Boston ale...on rare occasion I'll pick up a sixer of it.

Sudster - as a native, it is my duty as a citizen of the US Beer Capital to tour this brewery (check my forum for today, although I accidently stuck it in drunken ramblings and mumblings). I shall get to it eventually, but the next tours we plan are of Redfish, Boulder Beer Company and New Belgium. When I get to Flying Dog, I shall try to remember to ask for you. Leave me a PM to remind me. This may take some time, as we only tour every other week and usually visit our favorites.

However, the artwork is certainly a nifty point before. Ironically, I always thought the artwork on their beers was lousy. Go figure. I like some of their brews, though.

Then again, my local liquor store has an import with a picture of a bird with a pot on its head eating some guy who has black birds flying out of his butt.

Now that's a picture I still can't figure out how it ever ended up on beer.

Thanks Happy Mug...that would be awesome. I'll try to remember to remind you .

Sudster said:

Thanks Happy Mug...that would be awesome. I'll try to remember to remind you .

Click to expand...

Do you need some one to remind you to remeber to remind him?

If you could remind me to remind him I will remeber you.

Happy Mug, My nephew and I are planning a Pubcrawl trip through your state. We have about a week. Would you recomend an itinerary for us. As part of the crawl I would like to hit the Flying Dog.
Thx in advance.

Sudster said:

Happy Mug, My nephew and I are planning a Pubcrawl trip through your state.

Click to expand...

Can I come?

First off, I would love to. However, I am really bad when it comes to Iteneraries. I'm also not familiar with the locations of all the breweries. Time management for me just doesn't happen very well. Some internet searches will yield good results for you, but allow me to make recommendations.

Man, there's a ton of good ones here. I recently posted "A day of brewery tours" in the drunken mumblings and ramblins, it goes better into the following three I can recommend. I can't really make a solid itenerary right now, though. There's a lot of maps of stuff in the boulder area. I know they're at Redstone, and I'm certain elsewhere. These are easy-to follow maps with the "cool places" clearly marked.

Flying Dog is in Aspen. This is one of those places I hate going to. I didn't know this when I said I would eventually tour there. Aspen is a short way into the hills. I don't know what else is up in Aspen for breweries, but you might want to try an internet search. It's about an hour drive outside of everything here. I believe the tours start at 2pm and 5pm.

I guess I'll start with the boulder area, since it's where my experience is.

First, a disclaimer. Boulder is 50 square miles surrounded by reality. It was a haven for hippies in the sixties, but now it's this weird hippie-yuppie town. People with money acting like people without. It's still pretty cool though. With the college, there are so many oh-so-fine women running around boulder it'll make your head swim.

Only place I know of "Tree Psychiatrists". Seriously. I've got a story behind that.

Redstone Meadery is excellent if you want to see a meadery. The tour was great, and the guide was hot. The free samples were top-notch. Make sure you get there around noon for the tour. The samples of the private reserve are $3 an ounce, but they are SO worth it (the stuff is $50 a half-liter. We bought one for new years). This year is a beautiful red raspberry mead.
http://www.redstonemeadery.com
We've got several places right off of pearl street mall in boulder. You can park and check out several places within walking distance. Mountain Sun, Redfish, BJ's restaurant and brewery, and several others.

Mountain sun is my next recommendation. There's no real tour, but you can stand by the glass window and watch the brewery all you like. Great stuff. Their sampler is wonderful. You pick six beers from their extensive menu, and they come out in 8oz glasses. The three of us bought two samplers. The beers are great. I haven't tried the food here, but the beer is so like homebrew it's unreal. They don't have a website, but the following is a review and lists their brews. The nitro-charged cream stout is the BEST!
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2972

BJ's brewery and pizza is just down the street. Great pizza. Their sampler is a lot of 6oz glasses (we ordered two of them - it was a wall of beer!). I liked the brews in mountain sun better, but these were excellent. They have a hefeweizen and american amber that's unreal. The pizza here is not to be missed.
http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com


Redfish is one I have sadly missed, also within a couple minutes on foot. I hear they've got a crawfish gumbo that'll knock your socks off, and a real neat tour. They are closed on Saturdays.

Avery is pretty close as well, and I love their beers. I've not toured there yet, though. The boulder beer company is here as well. That hazed and infused is a crazy hoppy amber.

In Fort Collins we've got New Belgium (fat tire, baby!), Odell (90 shilling!), Coopersmith's pub and brewing, Coner O'neil's Irish pub and restaurant, Big Horn Brewery (Buttface amber, heh heh). Fort Collins is about a 45 minute drive from boulder, depending on your route (diagnal highway to I-25, best bet)

And, for the little kids, there's Budweiser. They can see the clydesdales. Okay, I've actually heard the tour is really good, if you're interested in the mass-production thing. Bud is why Fort Collins is #2 nation wide in beer production.

I don't know anything about the denver breweries. I just don't like going downtown, so I don't know about them. There's a lot of them real close to coors field.

I've spent an hour on this already. Let me know if you want more information or anything, because I need to go. Also, let me know when you'll be out here.

Thanks a million for the recommendations. I'm not sure when we will be going

but we'll give you a shout when we do. We just decided to do the trip.

This past weekend I was visiting in the Dallas area and we went to the New BJ's that just opened in the Plano area.. It was awesome.
Like you said ..Great pizza. We had the Buffalo chicken deep dish. It was amazing.
We ordered the 4 sampler and it came out in 3oz glasses. Great Hefe and the Brunette Amber was good too. I didn't care for the Kolsh.
We tried a couple Belgians ...Chimay Grand Reserve and one other, but can't remember the name.

They said that they brew in Houston and ship the beer every two days.

We wanted to try the Porter but they were sold out. Must be good.

We then tried Two Rows and that was a disappointment.
We had such a good time that we decided to do the "Brewers Capital tour" .

Thanks for the time you spent on the reply. Great info!

El Pistolero said:

Can I come?

Click to expand...

Sure! And we'll even let you buy the first round.

sudster- are you just heade to the denver/boulder/fort collins area, or will you go all over the state? BTW flying dog is in denver, not aspen. and i dont believe there is any breweries in aspen or the area, used to be one in bonedale but its long gone, so dont bother with that part of the state, the nearest breweries to aspen are all by grand junction/palisade. if youre going to front range area i'd check out wynkoops, breckenridge brewery (which is in denver not breck), flying dog, new belgium, odells, oskar blues, left hand, all the boulder area brewpubs like walnut street, mountain sun, boulder brewing, avery for sure, and theres a new artisan brewery focusing on extremely high quality belgian beers in boulder but i cant remember the name, i know it is a number though, like '23' or something like that...if youre interested in going to summit county then go to backcountry brewery, or at least pick up a bomber in the liquor store wherever you are, i've had each of thier beers once and remembered liking them all, of course sometimes my memory fails me like with this 'alien amber' stuff i picked up in New Mexico last week over the holidays that i haqd at a brew fest last year and remembered being awesome, but picked up a six pack and it is one of the worst amber ales ive ever had. so have fun in denver, be safe, do a quick search and you'll probably come up with some more places to tour, i guess how many you do depends on time. oh yeah one more... fortcollins brewing- their chocolate stout is great, so is their irish red, and the pomegranate wheat is...well...its interesting...you should try a taster of it if you go there or find a pub with it on tap. have fun

edit- also try sandlot brewery at coors field...real good stuff and a winner at this years GABF for best small or medium sized brewery in America. and if youre headed through other parts of the state let me know and i can recomend more in the southwest/western slope areas.

drengle, right now it looks like there are enough places to hit in just the Denver/Boulder/Fort collins areas.
Great input, I really do appreciate you guys going to the trouble here. I am just in the planning stage of this trip .

I suspect we'll hit the Denver/Boulder/Ft. Collins areas first.
If we survive that we might head somewhere else but have yet to decide where.

I do know that I want to talk to the head brewer at Flying Dogs.

We are planning a week trip and will drive up from Texas. One day up and one day back should give us 5 days of fun.

Again, thanks for the input.

Flying dog is in Denver? Are you sure? I could swear they were in Aspen. Then again, I've been wrong a lot lately.

yeah theyre on blake street (i think) in denver. i think the cost of property in aspen inhibits the possibility of a brewery being there. their loss huh.

Way to revive a dead thread, but the local beverage store just started stocking their twelve pack sampler.

I liked their Pale Ale as well, but I find the artwork rather confusing. It takes me a few seconds to find what kind of beer I'm drinking because all the labels are similar and the actual name of the beer is sometimes hard to find.

Flying Dog is actually one of the ones that i do have available here in Central Florida. I love IPAs, however their IPA sucks, and their Pale Ale is much better, though if you want their best brew- Try their Gonzo Imperial Porter, millions of times better.

I got a six pack (Pale Ale) in Miss. a month back that was bad though. metallic tasting. so disappointed.