Dec 8, 2016

Flying Dog Christmas IPA and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

The second beer and cookie pairing from Flying Dog’s third annual Holiday Collection combines an IPA with white chocolate chip cookies from Otterbein’s. The first offering of cinnamon-based Horchata Lager with sugar cookies seemed to make sense as the end result was pretty damn tasty. Coupling an IPA (featuring spruce tips and tangerine) with a white chocolate chip cookie is an interesting concept on paper. In the end, just like the first pairing, this one also works quite well.

The cookies are flat and crisp with a wonderfully golden brown appearance. The white chocolate chips are visible and not sparse as an aroma of orange wafts gently from the cookies. That orange influence is also fairly strong once you start greedily chewing — mixing with the sugary cookie base and chocolate perfectly. This is a darn good cookie.

Flying Dog photo

The 7.6% ABV (60 IBU) IPA pours a rich, golden amber in color with a full crown of dense, creamy foam resting atop. Earthy orange peel and tangerine dominate the nose while a nice piney trait lingers behind. It’s not until the beer hits your tongue that the spruce influence explodes, overtaking the citrus ingredients with ease. The orange peel and tangerine are still in the mix, but let that spruce take the spotlight for the duration. A moderate hop bite carries everything to the lasting finish where it lingers for a while with bread and grain.

When enjoyed together, the beer and cookie serve to accentuate the orange influence found within one another. The sugary cookie also helps temper the spruce within the IPA while the white chocolate adds a creaminess and light richness to the affair. I honestly was surprised that these two actually worked out well with the other. I was expecting the spruce to overwhelm the cookie flavors, but the crisp treat held its own just fine.

Flying Dog photo

When this package from Flying Dog arrived, this was the one pairing that I really didn’t expect to work out as well as it did. The orange flavors in both items proved to shine through, tempering the IPA’s strong spruce flavor. The end result presents a seasonally appropriate array to tingle the senses and prepare you for the upcoming holiday season.

This is a review of a promotional sample.

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