Turbodog Reunion: Reliving my First Craft Beer Experience

When I was in my early twenties, I had my first taste of craft beer at Onieal's Bar & Restaurant in New York's Little Italy. My friend Molly was a bartender there, and while visiting her one evening, i noticed a beer tap labeled "Turbodog." 

"Is that really a beer?" I asked. At the time, the most exotic beer I knew of was probably Blue Moon. 

"Yeah," she said. "It actually kind of tastes like chocolate and coffee."

"No way," I scoffed. At the time, I was fairly certain that all beer either tasted like piss (Budweiser), dirt (Guinness) or piss and dirt mixed with orange juice (Blue Moon). 

"Here, you can try it," Molky offered, and she poured an ounce from the tap into a rocks glass for me. 

I sniffed the beer tentatively. It actually did smell of mocha!!

"Turbodog's really what this is called?" I queried, eyeing the clear, brown liquid as I turned the glass in my hand. 

Molly nodded.

 "Such a weird name," I remarked, and then took my first slow sip. "Oh my god." I put the glass down, and paused to relish this new discovery. Beer...could be good...? "Yeah, I'll have one of these," I said.

After that night, I took a closer look at taps, ordering anything I'd never heard of before. There were so many breweries with weird sounding names--Magic Hat, River Horse, Flying dog. To my delight, many of the beers I tried were good by any standard, and all of them were different than anything I'd ever tried before. I began to feel like a collector of new tastes, and started doing research  on my newfound hobby. Pretty soon, I  was a bonafide beer geek to the point where I was able to easily pass the BJCP's beer judge exams. 

The other day, I was out with my sister at Beer Culture, an excellent bar and bottle shop in NYC's Hell's Kitchen. There, I found a bottle of Turbodog, and I knew I had to try it. I was concerned, however, that having a much more refined palate and the experience of tasting hundreds of truly excellent beers would cause me to find my "first love" lacking. I wasn't sure if I wanted to give up my romanticization of Turbodog, but I was so curious to see how my point of view had since developed. 

The look of trepidation on my face turned out to be unfounded. My beer know-how actually made it so that I was better able to appreciate Turbodog--I found that I liked it even better tha the first time I tried it!

The "it tastes kind of like coffee and chocolate" description was now so ridiculously basic. I realized that while these flavors remained, there existed even more--rich plum pudding, pecans, and toasted bread crusts, all tempered by a crisp, refreshing mouthfeel and balanced by an overlying maltiness. It seemed I'd lost my craft beerginity to a good one. 

Turbodog is made by Abita Brewing Company in Louisiana. Here in the NYC area, the brewey is best known for its flagship beer Purple Haze, a lager brewed with raspberries. As neither a lager fan, not a fan of fruit-infused brews, I've admittedly avoided Purple Haze. However, I've proven my hunches wrong so many times, that I should probably pick up a six-pack. And so should you--Purple Haze is easy to find in many stores. 

I still recommend Turbodog first and foremost, however.