Flying Dog’s Dead Rise

Earlier this summer Flying Dog released Dead Rise, a new beer celebrating Old Bay’s 75th anniversary, which was brewed to taste like the quintessential Maryland spice. It’s a summer ale with an ABV of 5.6% and 25 IBUs. While initially extremely difficult to find in-store because of the high demand for the beer, I had assumed largely because of the novelty of it, in the past month or so I’ve had good luck finding it in various St. Mary’s County liquor stores.

I have to say that when I first bought the beer that I was pretty hesitant, and figured it was going to be one of those beers that you either really love or really hate (like, say, a beer with curry flavoring). I mean, I like Old Bay as much as the next Marylander, but I found it difficult to believe that a beer that tastes like Old Bay could be drinkable. Much to my surprise though, Dead Rise was actually good. The beer definitely has somewhat of a lagery taste, which I generally don’t like, but I find that the flavor and bitterness in the beer offsets that and nicely rounds it out. A few seconds after that initial taste the Old Bay flavor starts coming in, but it’s really just a hint of it and not overly strong.

Overall I really like Dead Rise, and I’m very happy that Flying Dog opted to make Old Bay be complimentary to the beer, instead of being the beer. I’m hoping that after the success of Dead Rise this year that it’ll become a yearly seasonal. If you haven’t tried it yet, go pick it up at your local liquor store before it’s gone!