Dog House Red
Rockyard Brewing

 

a pretty interesting and compelling beer honestly, better than these guys ever get credit for, and somewhat ambitious for what is known to me as a mass appeal brewery, at least generally speaking. this bottle has been in my basement forever, and the small typed date on the label says 2/20/2014, which should be plenty of time for a brett fermented red ale aged in red wine barrels. i was surprised to see it pour so flat, not quite still, but almost dead in the glass, heavy and leaden and really quite still, brick red, opaque, and lazy. aroma and flavor are nice though, fruity mature, super funky without hardly any bacterial sourness, even after all this time, just some woody tannins. i get a lot of the red wine from the barrels, and the wood too, with black cherry and tangy citrus notes, its great on top of the sweeter, caramelized grain base that looms a little heavy without any carbonation to it. its not quite dry, but the red wine zap is enough to keep it from being too much, and all the wood makes it silky despite being a little thin. it just really needs some bubbles, i literally demand it in american wild beer at this point, and its absence is a huge problem for me. not sure it could have been there when it was fresher, where would it have gone in a capped bottle right? it also certainly had time to develop some carbonation in the bottle, but it didnt, so thats the negative here. still, its really complex, winey, fruity, woody, yet still grain driven and funked out nicely, and i think its one of the better and more adventurous beers i have had from these guys. if you still have one in your cellar, no is probably the time. do these guys still do wild beers? havent seen anything in this realm from them in ages...