Laughing Dog Brewing - CSB How Dogs Say Hello

In honor of the OC Pet Expo I went to today, and again thanks to Kiki: CSB How Dogs Say Hello by Laughing Dog Brewing.

To be honest with you I had never heard of Laughing Dog Brewing ("LDB").  They're located in Ponderay, Idaho which is next to Sandpoint, Idaho on Lake Pend Oreille.  Where's that?  It's in Idaho's pan handle about an hour and a half northeast of Spokane, Washington.  Who cares about Spokompton?  OK, you're right.  In other words, it's five and a half hours northwest of beautiful Helena, Montana.  Ahhh.  Montana.

What's CSB?  According to LDB, Ben was the laughing dog and he said "hello" by sniffing people's crotches so a friend came up with the term crotch sniffing bastard, or CSB for short.  This beer is a British-style ESB.  This beer is copper in color.  Its hoppy and bitter but balanced with toffee malt flavors.  Flavor wise it seemed like a malty pale ale.  If you've every had a beer that dubbed itself as "copper" its like that but hoppier.

LDB claims they put their own twist on the ESB style (that's extra special bitter ale to the lay person), but to me it tastes like a standard ESB.  Maybe I need to try more ESBs.  Yes I do.  But if you look at the major craft brewers they all have one beer that is uniquely them.  Big Sky has Moose Drool.  Sierra Nevada has Pale Ale.  Anchor Brewing has Anchor Steam.  Stone has Arrogant Bastard.  New Belgium has Fat Tire.  Boston Brewing has Sam Adams.  Etc.  All those brewers make lots of good different types of beers.  But what makes them stand out is that they have one brew that is amazing and becomes their signature.  The CSB is good but I'm not sure it is unique enough to be a signature. 

In sum, the CSB was very well balanced and very tasty.  I would definitely drink it again.  LDB has a lot of styles of beer listed on their website, including a cream ale and four types of IPAs.  I'm excited to see what else LDB has to offer.