I first heard about Flying Dog’s Wildeman Farmhouse IPA last May when reviews of it started popping up all over the blogosphere (click here to read one such review). Since I love Farmhouse Ales and IPAs, I figured this beer would totally be “in my wheelhouse”. While pulling together a mixed six pack a couple weeks ago, I saw this beer on the shelf and just had to pick up a bottle for a proper review.
Here is what Flying Dog Brewery has to say about their Wildeman Farmhouse Ale:
His axe is stained with the blood of a thousand adversaries. We fall in behind him as he leads up into darkness. He turns his gaze on us. “Tentanda via est!” The way must be tried. Wildeman has arrived. Legions of followers marched across Europe in his wake. But was most soon realized is that Wildeman is already inside of them, ready to be awakened. Will you fall in line or find the edge?
That didn’t tell us anything about this beer! Let’s see if this video from Flying Dog Brewery helps at all:
Hmm. That wasn’t very helpful either!
Let’s just jump to the review so that we can find out how wild this Wildeman really is…
- Appearance: Slightly cloudy, yellow orange color. About half an inch of thick, off-white foam that dissipates slowly. A bit of lacing too.
- Aroma: Smells like a lightly hopped Farmhouse Ale. Getting some clove, honey, orange and lemon zest, and some piney hops too.
- Taste: Lightly carbonated with a creamy texture. Citrus and a touch of honey to start things off. A bit of that piney hop bitterness kicks in towards the middle with a definite lemon zest kick in the background. All of the flavors come together at the finish, i.e. lemon zest, a touch of bitterness, and finally, some of those clove notes kick in as well.
- ABV: 7.5%
Flying Dog’s Wildeman Farmhouse IPA is a beer that became much more interesting as it came up to room temperature. While the IPA aspects of this beer weren’t very obvious when I took my first few sips, as it warmed up, the hops definitely let you know they were there and added a really tasty twist to the usual Farmhouse Ale flavor profile. I still get that mouth coating astringency in the finish, but this time with a mildly bitter kick that I really enjoyed. Well done Flying Dog!
