Buoy 8 Strong Ale
Astoria Brewing Company

Usually this is my favorite beer at the Wet Dog. The version today was nearly the same color as the amber. It had a good head. It had good lacing and was more hazy than the amber and a lot less carbonation was visible.

It had a heavy hop aroma and little malt. It was medium bodied, clearly alcoholic and had average fizz. The hops were really present. The new brewer has gone more toward an IPA version of a strong ale than a malty heavy barley wine style.

The taste was fine with moderate sweetness, a heavy alcohol, and hop bitterness that lasted a fair time. Over hopped for my taste but along the lines of some of the strong west coast strong ales.

And I know I will have it again.

I imagine that most imbibers won’t care for this one nearly as much as I did, for the flavor is as raw as a recent flesh wound. Indeed, my rating is based on the assumption that your tastes may be as eclectic as my own – a crazed notion to be certain. But I can’t help but admire the raw gutsy character of this beer which some might confuse with a crude oafish animality.

It is easy to find refinement in this beer if one looks everywhere but the taste. The fresh bready aroma, the velvety soft body, and the tall sandy head all contribute to a visually stunning and sensually delightful beer. Buoy 8 is alive with invigorated carbonation and exceptional head retention. Its color is a canyonlands sunset brown. The mouthfeel is light and feathery. The head is a plush carpet trailing abstract lace.

It’s the taste of this beer that will win you or lose you. Most likely you won’t go for its bracing alcoholic dominance and the biting bitter finish that truly lacks polish. Face it; this beer is muscular and crude. It is well suited to sailors, deadbeats, scoundrels, and me. As painful as it may be, I can only implore of the brewer, thankyou sir, may I have another?