Dog Soldier Golden Ale

Cavalry Dog Soldier Golden Ale
Six pack, $?, 4% ABV

Purchased at I forget

Look at that beer. It looks perfectly lovely, does it not? Except that you surely notice something different here. What could it be…

Perhaps that the glass is not filled to the top? Almost every one of my pictures is of a full glass. So what happened here?

Cavalry happened. This was probably the first Cavalry bottle I had that was way overly carbonated. Upon opening, I lost a couple ounces, but waited it out and took the picture. Had I known that this carbonation issue would plague subsequent offerings from this brewery, I’d have documented the mess. Oh well.

Cavalry closed in May 2014, so you won’t have to suffer a sticky floor or drippy counter by the likes of them anymore. Their closing was seen as imminent by some, sad by others. Me? Despite my disturbing obsession with Connecticut beer, I was ambivalent. Cavalry certainly wasn’t one of my go-to’s and they weren’t big players in the game. Oh, and their beers were generally below average.

Even so, a business failing is never a good thing; especially one that one man put so much into. So now that I write about it, I do feel sad for all involved. I met Mike, the owner/brewer, a few times and I thought he was pretty cool. He certainly has a fascinating life story – bits of which he tells on his various beer labels.

Cavalry Says:

This fine golden ale while light in color has great malt and hop flavors with citrus aromas. Designed to follow in the footsteps of a classic session beer.

Dog Soldier covered the eastern Baghdad area of operations and was made famous by a reporter who published his disdain for those running the war. Despite his faux pas his performance was exemplary and he was instrumental in providing water and food to thousands of Iraqi’s in his AO. DSNQ

mission_accomplish_1112950cFor all I know, Dog Soldier is Mike himself. He was fairly candid with me about his feelings on how horribly wrong the Iraq War effort was. At least in its execution. (And now, as Iraq becomes more and more of a nightmare in 2014, I’m sure he feels even more strongly. I can’t imagine what it’s like being a military guy and fighting a war in such a way that pisses you off.)

And serving a Commander in Chief who stands upon a carrier with a giant sock stuffed down his pants to say “Mission Accomplished,” when clearly, it was not. Sigh.

Okay, the Golden Ale. This beer was another “Mission Accomplished” that was not nearly complete. In other words, this beer was not good.

Even overlooking the huge carbonation problem, the aroma and flavors were all a bit of a mess, and – wait. I can’t overlook the carbonation problem. It was a huge problem all the way through. Just super bubbly and fizzy. That’s not good.

But beyond that, the Dog Soldier was super thin and the only flavor was the sort of adjunct bitter bleh from a, say, Michelob. Which is weird, because Cavalry only made “English ales,” with English hops and malts and processes.

The only thing English about this was the super low ABV and the watery base.

Definitely not one of the fonder memories anyone has a the defunct Cavalry Brewing.

Overall Rating: F
Rating vs. Similar style: F

Cavalry is closed. Stop looking for a website.
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