Victory Dirt Wolf

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After a frustrating day at work, I feel like some self punishment is in order. That's right, I'm punishing my taste buds with copious amounts of hops. Upon first look of this, I was turned off. I figured the name indicated it would have a lot of earthy characteristics about it. But, as the old saying goes, you can never judge a book by its cover. Speaking of cover, let's delve into this, nose first and cover this beer (like I want my tongue constantly covered in hops).

This pours a slightly hazy golden orange color with about a finger worth of white head. The aroma on this is slightly caramel with growing notes of citrus, tropical fruits, and straw. Nothing 'dirty' smelling about this. Huh. Ok, let's now hunt down the flavor profile of this 8.7% ABV animal. This enters the lips with a light straw and caramel malt background that lends itself perfectly to the aggressive hop flavors that kick through your teeth, ripping and shredding your mouth with powerful grapefruit, citrus, pine and tropical fruit flavors. After the initial attack, your mouth is reeling in shock with a slight stickiness from the hops. The hop flavor doesn't stick around long, but enough to make its presence known. The alcohol really isn't noticed while drinking, but it does start to sneak up on you, typical wolf, always hunting, always on the prowl for an unsuspecting victim. Tonight, I am the victim of the wolf, and I'm proud to be one.

4.75/5 caps

-Nathan-

Confession: we purchased this awhile ago, and drank the other two beers of the four-pack. I thoroughly enjoyed it then, and am looking forward to assaulting my taste buds once again, in a really good way. I also poured my portion into a tulip glass, respecting the proper glassware movement.

My bottle poured without a trace of haze. Nathan nailed the appearance, other than that. (My bottle also sat in the refrigerator a little longer, while he typed his portion. Reverse chill haze?) He perfectly described the aroma and flavors, so I'll just add that I love the grapefruit-forward nature of this beer; it almost tastes like there is grapefruit zest in this. There is a lovely blast of it toward the back end, and it's oh-so-welcome.

[I've now let this warm a bit to take a long break to visit with neighbors and friends and to watch Franklin and Bash, my favorite legal-beagle show of all time... so let's just get back into this and see how it's warmed.]

After warming for over an hour, it's a little sweeter up front, but again, not offensively sweet. It's just letting you know it's an 8.7% beer. The grapefruit-zest sensation still packs a punch at the back end, just as Stanton Infeld was sucker punched in F&B tonight. There's also a boozy warmth that comes through at the end of this that just warms the soul. Hands down, this is my favorite beer from Victory. It has also rapidly ascended my list of favorite DIPAs and I have repeatedly found myself craving it since those early beers.

4.75/5 caps

-Jennie

Music Pairing: "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran
Cheese Pairing: A naturally smoked provolone
Food Pairing: A Philly cheesesteak, and not only because this is made near Philadelphia