By Greg B.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the beers produced by Flying Dog.  I think some of their pale ales and IPAs, while being hoppy, lack finesse.  They are aggressively hopped, to the point of unbalanced bitterness, unlike a brewery like Dogfish head.  That being said, I’m not against giving them a try every now and again to see if their recipes have changed, or if perhaps their different beer styles are better than what I’ve tried.  With their Gonzo Imperial porter, I can say I’m glad I bought their beer, it certainly was not as bad as I expected!

I should set the stage for this beer.  I had just poured Sierra Nevada’s Porter, taken a few sips, taken tasting notes, then poured out the beer (if you look really hard, you can probably see my tasting notes on the compter screen in the background!).  It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes if a beer isn’t good, and I know I have another beer handy, why drink the beer you know to be bad?  This time I took a chance.  I was moving from one Porter that I felt was too hoppy, to a porter from Flying Dog brewery, which I generally think is too hoppy to begin with.  So I washed out (and dried) my glass, popped the top, and gave her a pour!

The beer pours a very dark brown color with a dark brown head, minimal showing at about 1 finger max at the highest point but this quickly recedes to a thin line of bubbles at the top of the beer. Aromas of toasted and caramel malt, a hint of chocolate is also detectable with some effort…. it has a very nice aroma which was way more malty than I anticipated much to my pleasant surprise! The taste is amazingly interesting.  Carbonation makes a presence at the start and the beer ends with a kind of ‘mealy’ chocolate flavor after when some bitters come out and hit you right at the end.  Coffee and nut flavors are also prevalent in this beer… or perhaps flavors of very nutty coffee?  This is an interesting beer… it’s not the smooth, creamy, caramel flavored style of porter that you’re used too, but it’s also not the over hopped and bitter beers that I think Flying Dog tends towards either.  The mealy texture is interesting, but I don’t think makes for a long session of drinking.  A good malty beer from a very hoppy brewery, packing a lot of flavor and intriguing qualities into one bottle.  2.8/5, 7.8% abv.