Hair of the Dog Adam

Brewed by Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Style: Traditional Ale
Portland, Oregon USA

Oakes’ comments say it all....Pretty much anything this guy says I take to heart....he definitely knows great beer. All I can say to Oakes is, ’Cheers!’

Once in a while a beer will come along that aims to knock your socks off, and succeeds. Rarely is brewing perfection achieved from start to finish, but let’s give the rundown on this one, for the amateurs who may be unawares:
Aroma - Just the first enticement at the beauty to come. Just from the aroma you can tell this is going to be something special. A smoky element intertwines with a chocolatey one. And it’s all up-front, unmistakeable, undiluted, unapologetic.
Appearance - You fucking kidding me? This pours pitch-dark with a head that just won’t go away. Just won’t go down, dammit. Great, just great.
Flavor - Delivers on just what the aroma promises. Chocolatiness intermixed with dried smokiness and then the sweetness and then the fruity undertones and Porcupine Tree informs me in the background that one of the wonders of the world is going down.
Palate - Full-body, thick and chewy and full welcome after-linger.

Rating: 5.0. It just doesn’t get better than this. My new favorite beer. $4 a bottle and worth every last cent.

Batch 69, for those keeping track.

Best Beer I've ever had. I kept it stored for about 6 months, opened it, and enjoyed every ounce.

Last batch rated: 68

I try to keep these ratings well organized, but I think I might have confused a batch 4 for a batch 44, and a batch 48 for a batch 70, or something... I need to figure this out.

Batch 44
Brew Date: 02-01-2000
Bottling Date: 03-23-2000
Consumed: 03-2008 (8 years cellared)
Thanks to Schroppfy for sharing. I’m not sure if it’s faded somewhat after this much time, but there’s certainly a ton of the sticky tobacco, olive and plum resinous malt left in this one, and even some hoppy scents and mild bitterness as well. It’s a beast that stands up to aging, although I prefer Adam between 1-3 years old.

Batch 55
Brew Date: 06-12-2002
Bottling Date: 08-14-2002
Consumed: 08-2004 (2 years cellared)
Dark garnet and ruby brown colored body, mild opaqueness when poured delicately from the bottle, with a salt-and-pepper and toast colored splotchy dark tan head, moderately thick and foamy. Initial smell of this vintage is green olives and peppery, toasty yeast. Palate is somewhat abrasive at first, with very full flavors of pine, oak, whiskey, and even a small anchovy note. This is a good example of one of the less-than-stellar batches (or perhaps bottles) of Adam – it’s brash, assertive and hearty, but still hints at the core of what Adam is, and at what some cellar time will do - the bouquet of roasted plums and wood especially. This batch is fantastic but does not garner a 5.0… it is the next review that represents the best batch I’ve had, properly aged of course.

Batch 60
Brew Date: 08-2003 (estimated)
Bottling Date: 11-2003 (estimated)
Consumed: 03-2006 (2.5 years cellared)
The head is a multicolored cinnamon, salt and pepper creation, sometimes thick on the walls of the glass and other times thin as a few molecules floating on top of the body. The smell of this one is divine – what could be the finest aroma I’ve ever sensed – simply phenomenal... full of cedar, plums, black cherries, earthy, gritty scents, peppery, dusty yeast, and freshly tilled peaty soil. Moderately thick body, full of carbonation, but also warming the tongue and throat with a velvety coating of sherry, amaretto and rich, sweet pipe tobacco. An amazing experience, and every time I drink Adam it just gets better and better.

Batch 61
Brew Date: winter 2004
Bottling Date: spring 2004
Consumed: 08-2008, 4.5 years cellared
Some acetic notes in the nose, along with heavy peat, smoke, scotch, leather, etc. Rich and robust flavor, tannic dryness across the back... rich toffee, black tar tobacco, rich leather. Really good, but very very different from nearby batches. Not the best version, but kind of surprising that it’s only 1 or 2 batches before what I consider some of the best batches of Adam.

Batch 62
Brew Date: spring 2004
Bottling Date: summer 2004
Consumed: 06-2008 (4 years cellared)
Maybe the most amazing nose I’ve ever had out of an Adam... incredibly rich and deep roasted plum, red grape, dry, charred oak, amazingly deep and rich, coats the mouth with a velvety layer of sensuous excitement. Amazingly rich, full-bodied, wondrously roasty and heavy with dark, roasted fruit. Astonishing. One of the best batches I’ve ever had.

Batch 63
Brew Date: summer 2004
Bottling Date: fall 2004
Consumed: 06-2008 (4 years cellared)
Heavy tobacco-resin covered dark fruit, char, smoke, peat, amazingly deep and invigorating nose. Velvet smoothness and bright, active alcohol at the corners of the palate. Amazing softness, richness, and roast could even suggest imperial stout... this more and more seems like a beer than Pannepot will become, years of experimentation and development, decades of internal variation and character. Grab some batch 3 Pannepot these days and have it taste like batch 3 Adam in 12 years. Do it.

Batch 65
September 2008
Nose is extremely hearty, rich and meaty, with heavy notes of tobacco and blood sausage. Plums and black cherry skins are all over this thing. Pipe tobacco and resinous charred fruit are divine. Wonderful stuff, perhaps a bit on the fruity side, still with some citrus hop character present. Chocolate covered cherries... mmm.

Batch 68
October 2008
2-3 inch brown cola colored head. Body is dark plum red. Nose is rich blood scented plums and sweet pipe tobacco, and the red and black cherries and rich, sweet chocolate syrup is exceptional. Huge, rich and frothy, a bit of some burnt, arcid charred chocolate and dry, charred wood, maybe the most char-heavy Adam batch I’ve had. Exceptionally long finish, oily, roast-heavy, dry and parched, bitter but still slightly sweet. Divine.

Batch 70 (?)
Bottling Date: mid-to-late 2007?
Consumed: 03-2008, probably 6-12 months old.
Another one shared by Schroppfy, this time as a comparison to the 8 year old batch 44. Huge dry hopped grassy nose of hops, with alcohol, plum wine, vegetal olive and sticky malt scents. Amazingly vibrant, fresh, chewy, resinous - this beer is the definition of resinous - really damn good, I liked a lot of what this beer had better than the 8 year old bottle, actually.

Batch 72
Bottling date: 11-??-2008
Consumed fresh
Weak body, sharp and oily, flabby even. Fusel sharp nose of smoked olives and charred tobacco. Really needs time.

12oz bottle, #55. Cellar temp...massive foam! I got about 2oz of beer in my glass topped with 10 oz of dark foam, and I poured slowly and carefully! Smells like a decaying herb garden in autumn with somebody frying bacon nearby. Great lace....Bacon and ham is unreal in the nose...foam has finallly settled so I can get a drink....and it drinks like a Rauch Impy Stout...Impressive...Roastiness not really there like a stout, but so much more is...That’s not doing this complex beautiful beast justice, but that’s all I can do...just tastes gorgeous, makes me not mind the foamy pour, it was fun to sit and smell it for 5min! Score 4.5/5 A9 Ap4 F9 P4 O19 Batch#59 almost exactly 2 years in the bottle for this one...phenomenal...no smokey/bacon aroma, just intense fruitiness soaked in dark chocolate....a frothy pour again, but I managed to get about 8oz of beer into the glass anyway...this makes the Full Sail Black Gold IS I drank before it look like child’s play...this thing is so big, beautiful and voluptuous that it has blown me away...I’ve always loved Adam...this just proves it might be artisinal brewing at its pinnacle. this gets 5s across the board.

finally found this beer on the east coast at brickskeller’s, though it was 12$ a bottle. probably one of the best i’ve ever had. tasted of roasted malt, tobacco, smoke, sweet, alcohol, full bodied. the only bad thing you could say is it’s not super super drinkable, but that is clearly not the point with this stuff. very individual and worth seeking out in every way

200th beer. Explosion of flavors. Sweet, bitter, citrus, coffee, chocolate all wrapped up into a single sip. Very Potent. Buck Dich is my new personal saviour!!! Very much like the potentcy of a 3 floyds product. Hits ya and keeps hitting ya. Way better choice than Kemper Berry Weizen. What the hell was I thinking. Jordan you da man!!! I hate to say this but this is much better than my three floyds I’ve consumed. Wow!!!! There’s only one way to do this offering justice. Its way more than I expected. For that, it deserves a 6.0 but this site doesn’t offer anything higher than perfection. So I must submit its a perfect brew. Can’t say anything more to do it justice.

Batch 63 from big-ass bottle purchased at Zipps in Minneapolis. I really feel that this beer is cheating. I know for a fact that my rating is too high, but I shared the bottle with some friends I hadn’t seen in years, the night before my wedding. Rich caramel, coffee, madagascar chocolate cut with condensed milk, dark homemade bread, pork roast. BUttery, creamy, bursting with round flavors. THis takes all the best elements of North Coast’s Rasputin Imperial, mixes them with the nonchalance of Newcastle, puts on a tux and shoves them down your throat. Smoother than Sean Connery judgiing a panty-dropping competition.