Hair Of The Dog Brewing Company Blue Dot (365 Day 142)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer, Beer on Friday, April 22nd, 2011

Hair of the Dog Blue Dot

American craft beer day lands on Thursday evening for me each week. Rich, Steve, Chuck, and myself get together, review a few beers, and allow ourselves to get prepared for the weekend.

This weeks selection of beer was quite interesting but, as always, was American IPA and American Imperial IPA centric. That could be more of Rich’s doing than anyone’s as he is the biggest hop head of them all.

Blue Dot by Hair of the Dog Brewing Company has been on my radar for a few years. I first scored a bottle via my cousin a few years ago. Unfortunately, it was an old bottle. It was a resinous and bitter mess. I didn’t rate the beer then because there was no way of knowing what the brewery had intended, outside of the bitterness.

Fast forward a week or so ago, when said transaction with my cousin netted me a new bottle. This bottle was labeled Winter 2011. My heart raced. It is no where near the Winter of 2011 as we are finally coming out of the Winter 2010 doldrums.

As expected Blue Dot is bitter with a nice combination of orange, grapefruit, floral, and spice notes, both in the aroma and taste. The taste leaves a whopping, unbalanced bitterness but it doesn’t last and, for some reason, I liked it; which doesn’t happen often. I hope I don’t have to wait another 2-3 years for a good bottle. Enjoy!

Aroma: 9, Taste: 9, Look: 9, Drinkability: 8, Overall: 8.7

Useless Fact: Venezuela’s Angel Falls are a mile high.