Which was the dog? Milo or Otis?

Brewery: Napa Smith Brewery
Location: Napa, CA
Name: Lost Dog
Type: Red Ale
ABV: 7.2%
A beer from wine country? The concept seemed solid enough. I'd never heard of this beer or brewery and to be honest...I can't remember where I purchased this. I have a stockpile of beers eagerly waiting to give their 12 ounce lives to a greater cause and this one was on the top. Regardless, what's it like? Lost Dog is a warm and hazy autumnal orange that teeters on the reddish side. The creme colored head foamed up nicely and quickly ended up as a white ring around the top of the beer. There's a slightly sweet but floral hop note mixed with a slight hint of malt backed up by the ever familiar fragrance of sticky alcohol. Imagine a mildly strong IPA that has a shot of malt running through it. The problem with only buying one beer at a time is that you never know that if it's supposed to taste how it's tasting or if you just managed to grab a bad beer. The carbonation hits and then fades quickly leaving a taste that is slightly modified from the bouquet. I didn't get a huge amount of hops but there's a nice dose of nuttiness and caramel in the middle. The aftertaste is pretty bitter and seems a little off. There's an earthiness to it that I can't quite tell if its intentional or not. I think "musky" would be an apt description, but not like the musk of your grandmother's cellar. I know what it is, there's a certain dry-ness this beer leaves you with. Wasn't exactly expecting it but the more I drank the easier it became to identify. There's alcohol in this beer that's only slightly masked but it's hardly abrasive. I don't have anything disparaging to say about Lost Dog. However, I don't have anything remarkable to report about Lost Dog. It's a middle of the road red ale that amps up the taste of the earth. I'd take this over Killian's any day of the week and twice on Sunday if I had to.

You can't teach a lost dog new tricks. But it will need a bath when it gets home.