Ölbeat 036: Flying Dog Raging Bitch

Brewery: Flying Dog Brewery
Country: United States
Style: India Pale Ale
Abv: 8,3 %
@RateBeer

The name: an aggressive female dog. Ok?

Flying Dog Brewery, founded in 1990 in Aspen, Colorado, is a craft brewery located in Frederick, Maryland, United States. Named after an idea concieved from a painting in a hotel bar in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, after climbing to K2, the 2nd highest mountain in the world, the brewery produced around 100 000 barrels in 2014. The brewery has been noted - in addition to the quality of its beer - for the artwork in the bottle labels, which are illustrations of Ralph Steadman. The brewery is also an avid supporter of the local bands in Frederick. Raging Bitch caught my attention in OlutExpo 2015 as the best beer of the day, so I decided to have another sip.

What about the beer?
Colour is clear copper orange with small natural white head. Aroma has mild citrus, grass and yeast.
Taste has strong dry hoppy and high-carbonated first bite. Lemon juice and wheat malts soon step in the picture and are supported by stiff malty backbone. Palate brings yeasty flavour and adds some more dry hops. Aftertaste has dry pitterness and yeasty pine.

That's what I would call pretty heavy sh*t: strong hops and citrus of a superb IPA joined with flavours from Belgian ale yeast and wheat malt. Complex and different but still very balanced experience.

Ölbeat

First, we forget Baha Men and the like: the dog theme will not be present in the song. Second, we forget any kind of reference to or association with the beer's name. Then we get to the business and select the song like this:

Faith No More: Midlife Crisis (YouTube)

From the 1992 album Angel Dust, the song was written by the band members Bordin, Bottum, Gould and Patton. The music has been categorized alternative metal or funk metal, incorporated with progressive rock and hip hop elements. Well, I'd call it Faith No More -style techno-enhanced angst metal. The lyrics written by vocalist Mike Patton seem to consist of incoherent thoughts of an insecure person, having very little if anything to do with the song's actual title. Patton has said that the song is about creating false emotion, being emotional, dwelling on your emotions and inventing them. The track's working title for the album happened to be "Madonna", since the vocalist was in a way fed up with the artist's public figure. However, Raging Bitch was matched with the song, because both have elements of angst, anger and power.