Henry Ford's Girthsome Fjord
Moon Dog Craft Brewery

 

 

 

I recently attended a beer festival with domestics brewers (aust), moondog dew my attention due to their rather quirky offering. This is my 3rd beer of moondog that I have reviewed since attending, the brewer continues to surprise me and is one of my favourites at the moment. Appearance - pours dark with carbonation,off white bubbly head that disappears fairly quickly lacing is hardly present. Aroma - I got some vanilla and brown sugar In the nose, somewhat fresh as well. Taste - hoppiness is strong however welcome, roasty elements present. Mouthfeel - astringent (expected due to the visible carbonation), feels light. Can taste the alcohol in a somewhat 8% abv beer. Overall - has a noticeable hoppiness to it is refreshing to an extent, memorable for certain.

A - deep brown and hazy with a coffee head. S - coffee roast notes citrusy grassy aromas. T- the sweet maltiness comes through but then you get hit by the hoppy bitterness with citrusy notes. A lot of complexity in the taste. My wife said it reminded her a little of Kahlua and I can get that in the aroma and taste a little. M - good carbonation and while on warming up the alcohol starts to dominate a little more it's still very good. O - a really interesting beer and I haven't tried anything else like it so good on Moon Dog for bringing something different to the Aussie market. Not a session beer by any means but I'd happily have it again and probably pick out different points of interest. Good beer.

 

 

 

Bottle: solid brown 330mL bottle, typically funky Moon Dog label.

Appearance: there were 2 very distinct aspects to this beer's appearance. The first was literally thrust upon me as I opened the bottle and it positively exploded out of the bottle, leaving a thick trail from my lounge to the sink, which is impressive since it is over 10 metres away. The second and more impressive part was the pour - a dark brown thick and hazy colour with plenty of floaties. A frankly explosive three-finger tan head thrusts its way up and drops quickly to a rocky half-finger with decent retention, no lacing. 4/5 for the actual appearance, 1/5 for the explosive open.

Aroma: quite sweet on the nose, but quite subtle. There is dark stone fruit, chocolate, plenty of coffee during the initial explosive entrance.

Taste: in a word: fantastic. A smooth, well-balanced transition from the aroma - roasted malt with plenty of those heavy fruits - plums and a touch of raisins and sherry. Just enough hops to balance out the malt and fruit flavours. I simply could not believe that this is an 8.1% beer - there is hardly any suggestion that the ABV is that high, other than the slight warmth on the way down.

Aftertaste: the flavours back off quite quickly which is a bit dissappointing - not a huge hop presence for an IPA. Nonetheless, a very pleasant warmth left in the throat with the sweet and roast malts along for the ride.

Mouth feel: medium in body with a fair amount of carbonation, yet it is not overpowering. Quite smooth in feel with a slightly oily texture. Brings the flavours well without being over the top.

Overall: I was a little perturbed after the initial explosion and even more perturbed after realising that the amount that leaked was probably worth more than I am. but despite the price, this beer is worth it. Well balanced, smooth and with a fantastic combination of roast malts, sweet malts, heavy fruits, hops and a mouth-filling warmth, this is one of the best beers I have had to date.

 

Tap at Beer Deluxe. From notes.

A - Poured a muddy dark brown colour with a two finger medium brown head. Mild carbonation coming up, good lace rings and a film of retention.

S - Funky dark fruits, sweet and tart cherry and loads of funkiness.

T - Really funky, barny, sourness, dark fruit, grass, hay. Some sort of odd/slightly spoiled fruit. Rich and sour and/or funky. More of a funky fruit or wet dark grain. Much more funk than the aroma. All over the place and pretty cool.

M - Good carbonation, medium body and a funky finish.

O/D - A very deep beer. Many layers to contemplate and consider. Not as interesting as when I first tried it and probably not as good of an example, but still very cool. A very original beer.

Looking at the other reviews of this I MUST have gotten a bad bottle. Still, these are my notes from a few weeks ago and the memories are still all too fresh. Fair warning.

Pours a murky brown, basically opaque, with 2 fingers of frothy, spotty white head. A little different to what I was expecting. What's even more different is the smell: positively rank. Citrussy hops in there somewhere, but also weed, boiled vegetables, sweaty socks, ashtray. Not appealing in the least. I'm thinking about not drinking it.

Doesn't make a great impression on first taste. Copper coins, boiled vegetables and bad pot with a sweet malt base. Big lingering bitterness in the finish as well as an icky solventy flavor. Glue stick. Actually, in the time it took me to type that last sentence I am sick of it and don't want to drink any more. Ever.

Highly carbed, oily, medium body. Not so bad. Not much trace of alcohol under all that other stuff, commendably, but yeah.. the Moondog guys seem like great idea guys, so I hope they get their ambitions and their actual product reconciled sometime. This was vulgar. Made me feel a little sick.

 

First of style

Pours black with a one finger tan head. Coarse bubbles. Some visible carbonation as well.

Aromas of roast malts, chocolate, dried fruits.

Taste is roast malt driven with a huge fruity presence. Coffee and chocolate in the mix, and sherry and raisins. Quite sweet, and complex. Some hop presence but not as IPA label. Bitterness builds as it warms.

Mouthfeel nicely carbonated.

Overall, a real hybrid and I am not in line with other reviews. Well made though. Not particularly displaying Belgian or IPA flavours imho. More in stout territory.

Pours murky dark brown with a large, lasting head.
Boths hops and roasted malt are strong on the nose; big coffee and cocoa notes alongside grapefruit, pine and peach.
Same story with the flavours, big roasty characters as mentioned in the aroma, while the hops are mostly noticeable in a big, brash bitterness. Some alcohol is noticeable, but not hot.

Thanks to Chris @ Slowbeer

Pours a black colour (maybe Mars bar when held up to light). Good head (phew, I was praying this would be carbonated as my first Moon Dog beer) and lacing. Lots of sediment visible.

First smell is harrowing Australian roast malt. The next is pure glorious hoppy pine. Very strong. This definitely has loads of roast and hop, although on any one sniff it's a bit of a gamble what proportion of each you will get. Lives up to what it says on the label, apart from the Belgian bit.

Taste has more of a bias towards yummy hops. Ethanol is well disgused, making its presence known only with a hint of dryness above and beyond the hopping. Really fairly bitter, from hopping/roast/ethanol.

Mouthfeel features a tad too much astringency for my liking.

More of a black IPA than anything else. Brings the hops but I can't say I love it. It is not a Belgian IPA, there is nothing Belgian about this beer.

A - A thin lightly tanned head floats over a murky dark brown body. Small spots of lace fleck the glass.

S - Honey malt, coffee, the hops are there but not very prominent.

T - Dry dark roasted flavours of coffee and chocolate join yeast, pine and grass.

M - Light to medium body, highly carbonated, nice bitter finish.

O - Not really what I expected for a supposed Belgian IPA. It has some interesting Belgian characteristics yet is essentially a brown ale. I like what I see from Moon Dog, they seem to have some balls in terms of innovation, exactly what we need more of in the Aussie craft scene.

Pours a russeted dark oaky-brown colour, with tang head, nice and dense on top. Bubbles out but retaining with nice density. Lace is decent but nothing amazing. Looks good, though.

Smells big and hoppy at first - initial assault is twangy citrus and pineapple but then the malts kick in, all chocolate and dusky with a pleasant sweet grain note, but just enough kick of roast to keep it grounded. Very much the kind of smell I like. Good job, Moon Dog, in targeting me specifically with this aroma.

Taste is sadly less refined. Starts with slight tangy ale esters on the assault that develops more roasty brown ale notes midway, touch of cocoa and licorice, but this then clashes with the Belgian notes, musty spice that verges on funky and gritty, with some capsicaian flavour, turmeric and a caper bitterness. All in all it's quite muddy, and lacks coherence between the sets of flavours. It's caught in a centrifugal flavour spiral where it spines further out from the centre of what I think they're going for. It's a bit over-ambitious and maybe an attempt to be more left-field, where they've lost sight of the essential goal of creating good, tasty beer.

Bit boozey and hot through all of this, has quite a sharp note on the back. Not quite enough body, for the size.

One shouldn't be afraid to scale beers like this back. It's cool to try something different, but the number one goal should be creating nice beer, and I feel they've gone all in too quickly here.

Cloudy brown colour with a smooth, creamy, tan head. Fair head retention.

Nutty, minerally, roast aroma with some light fruitiness and a musk note characteristic of Belgian beers. A bit more fruit comes through and blends quite nicely with the darker malts.

Similar to the aroma with lots of fruit, drying, dark malts and a touch of sweetness too. Really great.

Medium body with moderately-high carbonation. Good.

A really solid beer. This certainly isn't a Belgian IPA as I don't really see it having the hop character but the blend of malt, hop and yeast is very nice.

You crazy Moondoggers.

Pours a cloudy (and I mean cloudy—so cloudy that it's opaque at the thickest part of the glass) deep leather brown colour, with a filmy, bubbly head of beige. Body is goopy and thick—you can see it even on the pour, as the syrupy liquid enters the glass. Decent fine lacing, and struggling carbonation. Looks good; at least, it's the sort of beer you look at and expect something interesting.

Nose is nicely done. Big mix of roasted grain sweetness and bright, sweetly aromatic hops, giving soft candied citrus and raisin/currant notes. Slight hint of peppery spice as well, possibly from the yeast, and a fresh green vegetative character. Yes, very good indeed.

Taste is clear and bright on the front, with citric hop flavours coating the palate, before a bang of astringent booze hits mid palate. This explodes and then dissipates, leaving the roasted grain character to mingle with a kirsch-like dark fruit and peanut skin character on the back. Burping gives another wave of resiny hops. Feel is smooth and thick, with a slight stretch from the alcohol heat.

The alcohol is a little too noticeable, and doesn't add a great deal to the beer, but otherwise this is very solid. It delivers what it promises, and has a touch of the anarchy which makes Moon Dog exciting. Probably my favourite of theirs to date.