Laughing Dog Alpha Dog Imperial IPA
Alpha Dog — Ahead Of The Pack
A True Hop Bomb Brewed plenty of Columbus and Mt Hood Hops for a Piney hop character. Premium Pale, Honey and Munich Malt make this beer a little less malty but packing plenty of hop punch.
A True Hop Bomb Brewed plenty of Columbus and Mt Hood Hops for a Piney hop character. Premium Pale, Honey and Munich Malt make this beer a little less malty but packing plenty of hop punch.
3.6
522 reviews
Ponderay, United States
Community reviews
Poured from bomber into a pint glass
Appearance – The beer pours a golden orange color with a one finger head of creamy looking white foam. The head has a great level of retention, slowly fading over time to leave a good level of streaky lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma of the brew is big of an earthy and grassy hop smell with a rather strong showing of a bready aroma. Along with these hop and bready smells, comes some lighter hop notes of a grapefruit citrus accompanied by some sweeter aromas of tangerine and a hint of a tropical fruit smell of pineapple and mango.
Taste – The taste begins with a rather bready taste mixed with a decent showing of some grapefruit and earthy hop. A little bit of a pineapple, tangerine, and mango are upfront as well, with these flavors losing intensity as the taste moves on further to the end. Along with the loss of the tropical fruit, comes some herbal and more earthy hop tastes. This all results in a more dry and dankly hopped taste, and with a hint of a warming alcohol that comes at the end, one is left with a rather dank and crisp taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the beer is on the slightly thinner side with a carbonation level that is rather average. While for a 2xIPA I usually like a bit more thickness and less carbonation, for the drier and more dank taste profile, the thinness and more light nature of the body were actually rather complimenting.
Overall- A rather nice more dankly hopped Imperial IPA. This was a rather enjoyable brew overall.
Great choice. It had a great amount of Hops but not too much and over-bearing. So good with a quality pizza.
1" foamy head has great retention and a ton of lace.. the brew is hazy honey gold.
Thick citrus rind and pine dominate the nose... smells very dry.. not much in the way of malts.. pithy.
Flavor has about as much hoppy presence as a brewer can pack into a liquid.. a hop delivery device for sure.. grapefruit zest and pine are alll throughout this one.. malts are there to provide a good balance.. but that is it!! oily hoppiness.. not out of whack... but I am questioning (in a good way).
The body is lite/medium for the style with some very smooth carbonation.. very dry and very "West Coast".
From 22oz bottle to snifter. Pour is a orange color, transparent with a thick white head. Nose is huge hop, some malt, pine, floral, black licorice. Taste is mostly bitter with sweetness shining through periodically. Medium-heavy body, very thick. Sharp on the palate with an alcohol finish. Nice imperial, really like the uniqueness that the different hops bring.
Wow, I’m surprised at the good ratings. Aroma of malt mixed with the urinal tablet. Tastes again of urinal tablet, bubble gum, and grapefruit rind. Was not a fan of this one.
Pours a slightly murky copper-golden color with a rich cream-colored head. Sharp hop nose. Sweet, caramelly malt backbone, but has a harshly bitter hop character.
Pours a medium golden with a nicely sized white head. Head is mostly made of tiny bubbles with a few larger ones mixed in and doesn’t god down quickly. Aroma of sweet, malty hops with a bit of honey. Hints of orange as well. All in all a very nice aroma. Strong hope flavor without being bitter. Slightly sweet flavor helps to balance out the hops a bit. This beer is kind of thick/malty in the mouth, but that isn’t surprising for an imperial IPA. Being in Montana I don’t get to drink as many really top-notch IPAs as I have in the past, but this tastes like a pretty good beer to me. Not as overhopped as some and no taste of alcohol but there is still a lot of flavor.
Smell of hops, citrus. Cloudy amber colour, high white head. Aroma of hops, spruce, finishes with grass and a faint orange peel aroma. Very bitter. Half oily texture, flat carbon. Quite typical American-style IPA, and a good one as such.
Poured into a snifter at home. Pours a golden amber with a one finger head and some nice lacing. Aroma is pine and pine resin, mango, apricot, and cereal. The taste was a slightly more sweet and malty DIPA than I usually like. Pine and fruits like apricot and mango also make an appearance.I detected a little bubblegum which was odd. Medium body, bitter finish.
I had this one a little aged and was not happy with the decision. It’s lost all its hops character and now taste like fruit juice. Not too enjoyable.
Slightly hazy dark golden with off white head. Alcohol & syrupy mango aroma. Boozy up front, oily pine citrus bitter. Malt is mild mannered. Gets better as it warms up, don’t serve below 50°F.
On tap at the Ginger Man, New York. pours hazy golden to amber with smooth off-white head. Fruity aroma. Citrus, fruit, malt, pine with dry hoppy bitter finish.
22
Looks yellow apricot slight haze. Large carbonation. Smells of solid citrus american hops. Tastes of a strong bitterness across the palate, mostly citrus. A mild malt balance. Rather high carbonation really brings out the flavors of this beer.
Poured from a bomber into a tumbler on 08.16.14.
A: Hop resin and red grapefruit.
A: 2 finger head. See through amber/gold body.
T: Hop resin, pineapple, and almost a bubblegum quality dominate. Flower, cracker, and honey are subtle.
P: Creamy and crisp. Lip smacking mouthfeel. Perfect carbonation.
O: This one is super resiny. I loved it. For 126.8 IBU, it’s definitely hop forward but it’s surprisingly not too much. The malt is there as balance, but it’s not annoying. Pineapple flavor is there in force too. It really is a fantastic West Coast style IIPA. Pliny who?
Draft at Crossroads. Pours a clear light Amber color with a small foamy white head. Aroma and taste were much the same. Sweet citrus, resinous pine, lemon zest, and a tad boozy.
22oz bottle. Poured a cloudy, vibrant yellow-orange color with a large white head. Aroma was orange peel, pine, resin notes. Flavor was lots of pine, citrus, some warming booze on the end.
Pours clear pale amber with two fingers of tight white head, great retention, excellent lacing. (5/5) Nose is piney and citrus hops, mango, caramel malt. (7/10) Taste is moderate sweet and strong bitter. (7/10) Medium body, moderate carbonation, lingering bitter finish. (4/5)
Decent IIPA that tends a bit to the harsh. It’s hop forward, though, and even though there’s lots of malt, it plays the appropriate supporting role instead of coming to the forefront. (As I’ve said many times, I’m always disappointed by malt-forward IPAs or IIPAs, but this isn’t one.) Fairly sessionable despite the high ABV and IBU’s. (127 IBU? Yeah, I believe that.) OK, fine, it is a bit of a palate wrecker, but if you follow it with another one of the same, that’s not a problem, right? (15/20)
660ml bottle from Jasper wine cellar & liquor store. Big sweet caramel and perfumed floral aroma. Pours a good looking pale amber colour, with a fine white head. Warming alcohol in the chest pretty quickly, the smell does remind me of rapeseed plants. Slightly chalky in the finish, but with some background dry grapefruit. Really enjoyed this.
"not super impressed with this one - just too many great iipas on the market to buy this agian, but it was ok. aroma and flavor of pine and bready malts, with a little citrus and ample bitterness to back it up."
22oz bottle. Very pleasant smell slightly citrusy with a piney flavor and a hoppy aftertaste
Om draft at Isaac Newton’s. This was just okay for me. Very piney finish, some caramel malts, some notes of grapefruit. The aftertaste was a bit harsh in the pine department. Could have been blended better.
Reviewed from notes.
This was poured into a snifter.
The appearance was a hazy copper/orange color with a one finger white foamy head that dissipated within about a minute. There was some light speckled lacing clinging slightly.
The smell had some grapefruit/piney aromas here and there.
The taste was similar.
On the palate, this one sat about a medium on the body with a fair sessionability about it. The carbonation was somewhat sharp but not overbearing.
Overall, good DIPA, it’s nothing over the top but gets the DIPA fix done.
Amberish pour, white foamy head. Pine focussed taste with some nice hops too. A good IPA!
After pouring and expecting to see my future in a frothy head that over stayed it's welcome similarly to a drunk and inappropriate uncle on an obligatorily awful holiday event, I shuddered with disgust at the aroma of an "alpha dog" after eating an expired disregarded batch of purina. So... There's that. It is a beer. It has a cool label. But even an alpha dog sniffs the a$$ of other dogs.
Grass, grapefruit, rosehip aroma. Clear amber, medium head. Grass, overripe orange, solid bitterness. Good.
Bottle pour. Wonderful, dank, hoppy nose. Spicy, pine flavor. Great beer overall. I’ll be back for more.
Beautiful nose, pine, floral, spice. Taste is not as good as nose, but still great, pine is prominent.
Slightly hazy copper under a sticky thin white head. Lovely nose with a bitter dose of piney and floral resins, with a sticky sweet note of papaya and a bunch of other tropical notes. Flavor is sticky with tropical fruity notes featuring papaya and grains of paradise, with a strong pine resin bitterness and some caramel.
Draft. Pours hazy gold with slight head, dissapates quickly. Aroma is nutty, floral, dank, bready. Taste is combination of those aromas. Hits the bitter notes pretty well. Nice full hop experience. I’d go back for more.
Pours a slightly hazy orange amber with a two finger rocky white head that fades slowly. Nose is lots of pine and floral hops with a faint background of honey and caramel. There is a a sufficient level of sweet malt and honey to provide a base for the massive pine and citrus bitterness to follow. Medium slick mouth with average carbonation and a long dry bitter finish with a very faint metallic tang at the end.