Green Dot
Hair Of The Dog Brewing Company

This surprised me. I'm not a fan of Blue Dot, but thought that I would try Green Dot. Little hoppier than I expected for a triple, but I enjoyed the hops and beer overall.

on draft at the brewery in Portland, in tulip glass

dark orange golden in color, white head. nice well rounded hop aroma, taste starts a little sweet but has a firm bitterness. medium bodied.

On-draught @ Hair of the Dog Portland:

C / AVERAGE

16oz can
canned on 04/16/21
L: slightly hazed amber colored ale; fluffy off-white head holds good retention
S: herbal & earthy pine/spruce, floral citrus, bread crust, light caramel
T: loads of pine, orange & grapefruit marmalade, floral citrus, spruce, light caramel, bread crust
F: full body, very resinous, soft carbonation, alcohol is well concealed, pungently bitter finish with pine resin lingering
O: I liked this one a lot, but there was something in the hop profile I couldn’t quite place, so I labeled it spruce…it was just different

 

 

 

 

 

16oz can

Pours maybe a finger of white head into my nonic. Retention is average, maybe a little below. Initial lacing looks pretty good. Body is a dark yellowish orange, with hints of brown, somewhat murky. Pretty good amount of bubbles coming up. Looks ok so far.

Nose is spicy and a little dank up front, leads way to some orange, pineapple, and a fair amount of peach. Smells on the sweeter side, but probably not to a negative point. Really a wonderful nose. Doesn’t smell like 9.5 % at all either.

Flavor is quite large here, as would be expected. Kind of a mash up of flavors at first, some booze gets in the way of a fair amount - notes of those juicy flavors hit intermediately, but I wish they came through more unscathed. Some of this is to be expected with 9.5, but this could certainly be improved upon. All that being said, this is still an enjoyable flavor.

Mouthfeel could use some work. Carbonation is quite low, kinda unacceptable considering the unassuming glass. Body has a fair amount of weight to it. Sugars are by no means over the top, but do make themselves known. Bitterness is hard to distinguish between alcohol, which itself is moderate.

Considering the booze, this is not terribly hard to drink, but that coupled with the higher than low amount of sugar makes for a beer that isn’t getting any points from its drinkability.

The appearance turned out sub par. Lacing was very sparse and the head was nothing special to begin with.

Overall this has a fair amount of nice things going for it in the flavor and aroma, but a handful of little hiccups show up quite often to land this at good but noticeably imperfect.

Update: As the beer warms, the alcohol disappears significantly, and the juicy flavors take center stage. Going to leave it at 4 for flavor, but note that this got even better.

Sampled from draught at Borefts 2019. Hazy light amber colour, small white-ish head. Aroma's: firm hoppy and malty sweetness. Retronasal it's resinous hops and sweet malts. Flavour is bitter and moderate sweet. Medium bodied. Long rather bitter finish.

 

Poured from 16oz can into a dimpled mug. Canned 7/11/19.

Appearance: pale orange hue with a moderate haze and a thin layer of frothy ivory foam. Decent enough.

Smell: an herbal, earthy hop character atop a pretty sweet malt base. Reasonable enough, but not mind-blowing.

Taste: sweet malt with fruity hop flavor. I don't know why the flavor is more fruity and the aroma more earthy; maybe it has to do with the sweetness? In any case, it's not bad if you like sweet beers. Bitterness is pretty restrained considering the sweetness.

Mouthfeel: medium-rich body with a good carbonation and creaminess for the style.

Overall: this isn't a bad beer, but it's a bit sweet for my taste.

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a moderately hazy, medium golden amber with a one finger white head with good retention and lacing. Aroma of pale malt, citrus and tropical fruit hops, passion fruit, lemon, a little pineapple and light stone fruit. Flavor is pale malt with a touch of caramel, citrus and piney hops, orange, passion fruit, pine needles, grapefruit rind and vague tropical fruit. Finishes with sharp, dry piney hops. Medium bodied with light creaminess. A bit different hop profile than I expected, with more pine than citrus, but also some fleeting tropical and stone fruit notes. Mild sweetness at first, but finishes dry and piney. A nice change of pace in hop flavors, but could have used a little more herbal hop flavor. Alcohol well covered. The best part of this IPA is trying to tease out a few uncommon fruit flavors from the mix. Interesting, but a bit too dry for me.