Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. beer warmed nearly to boiling, mixed with gin or wormwood (the basis of absinthe), sugar and ginger; an alternative version substitutes brandy for the wormwood.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 69: Dog’s nose — Or, half a pint of beer cold as a dog’s nose is, with a glass of brandy mixt, and still it will be no warmer. This is a dose for a coachman, guard, or any other out-all-night man, who would preserve his trachea and glottis from the operation of the cold air.
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 440: ‘Dog’s nose,’ which your committee find upon enquiry, to be compounded of warm porter, moist sugar, gin, and nutmeg.
1851		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 9 Nov. 5/1: ‘Dog’s noze’ (witch is a verrey prettey tipple).
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Jan. 21/2: A predeliction for dog’s nose or schnaps vulgarly called a hair of the dog that bit you.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 255/1: The coalporters are very partial to ‘dog’s nose’ – that is, half a pint of ale with a pennyworth of gin in it.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 9: There we sat, drinking just what we fancied — dog’s-nose in particular was what I liked.
1876		M.E. Braddon Dead Men’s Shoes III 248: He has never been properly sober, muddling himself with gin and beer – dog’s nose, he calls it.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 6/4: I was allowed to smoke a pipe if I leaned very much up the chimney; and it was as much as my comfort was worth if I refused an occasional pull at the comforting ‘dog’s nose’ that simmered on the hob.
1884		Illus. Sporting & Dramatic News 27 Sept. 7/2: The mutabilities of fashion which have acclimatised [...]‘Dog’s Nose,’ under the title of Nez-de-Chien in France.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 24: So in we went and called for a dawg’s nose apiece.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 24: Dog’s Nose, gin and beer for a drink.
1902		Dundee Courier 14 June 7/2: ‘Dog’s nose’ means gin and beer.
1931		Townsville Daily Bull. (Qld) 7 July 11/6: Passing him the over-proof rum, and the whiskey an’ brandy, he makess a dog’s snout of the three.
1940		(ref. to early 1900s) T. Burke Streets of London 92: Tea and coffee were too expensive for them; and it was not everybody who liked the stronger breakfast of Early Purl or Dog’s Nose.
1940		Gippsland Times (Vic.) 26 Aug. 5: ‘Better make mine a dog’s nose,’ tittered Shorty.

2. an alcoholic whose preferred tipple is whisky.

1889–90

Barrere & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.