Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam from the Wood

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

Sampled at hellbilly’s hellraiser 3 gathering. Bottles courtesy of myself and hellbilly and psprings? (I dont know, there were a few floating around!) Pours a deep brown color with reddish highlights and a small but lasting head. Aroma of bourbon, roasted malt, cherries, wood and vanilla. Flavor is big with all of the above, some tobacco and leather, and the cherries really only coming through on the finish. More cherry would have put this over the top, but it is a great brew as is. Thanks all!

Bottles from multiple traders - thanks so much for the hookup! This one has a nice dark brown color with a wonderful smoky/cherry/earthy aroma that is accented with some wood and roastiness. Flavor is a nice smoky cherry mix that captures a woody vanilla/oak mix and some nice sweetness. Smooth & complex feel, though its too young to be integrated as well as standard Adam when its aged. Overall very good - not for everyone, but I always love HOTD, especially Adam in any incarnation. Cheers to Alan Sprints as his brews are truly unique among so many great craft brewers.

Bottle. Pours out a dark red hued brown with a small lacing head. Aroma of cherries, chocolate, bourbon and some earth. Taste is complex with a sticky mouthfeel. Notes of cherries, chocolate, earth, roasted malts, wood and some other fruit notes in there also, slight alcohol on the finish. Very solid.

(bottle shared by tytoanderso, thanks Tyler!) Pours light reddish-brown with an off-white head. Aroma is heavily roasted, with hints of smoke, green pepper, wood, chocolate, and just a suggestion of cherry. The chocolate starts to increase over the roasted aromas as this warms it bit, making it more appealing on the nose. The taste is sweet and full of chocolate, vanilla, light cherry, wood, smoke, and ample amounts of booze. None of these flavors really combine, but instead individually advance and retreat creating a fairly unpleasant experience. This finishes with cocoa and lingering smoke. The mouthfeel is fairly thin as well. This definitely needs some time to mellow and mesh.

Plum-brown dense appearance. Heavy chocolate and fruit, black cherry and aroma; lots of woodsiness and mustiness; like a chocolate maker’s attic. A hollow saltiness. Silky sweetness, with the darkness of spirits, that seems mostly like amaretto to me.

Tons of medicinal cherry and bourbon and roast in the flavor. Lots of bombastic elements. Hugely sweet often in a wooden, spirit-like way. No tannins, but some acerbic fruit character, similar to a stem-like quality. Hot and messy most of the way through; though it kind of cleans itself up somewhat as it gets some air, it doesn’t really recover; massive roasts, sweet fruit, and thick alcohol, unequivocally competing and not not yet in harmony. Seems just to need some significant time.

Loose and full palate. Currently an effort that doesn’t add up to the sum of its quite exaggerated features.

12oz bottle. Gorgeous deep maroon/cola brown pour. Wow... a very, very pretty looking beer. Fairly muted aroma. Definite barrel presence on the nose. Tart cherry skin. Rotting apple skin. LOTS of alcohol presence. Some vanilla extract and wood tannin as well. Flavor is... um.. well.. not all that great. I think it has the potential, but now... it’s kind of a wreck of a beer. Tons of peat smoked malt, tart, tart cherry juice, alcohol, barrel. Some cola sweetness and vanilla extract. Really a mess. The malt, barrel and fruit aren’t blending that well right now. Slick, oily and flabby body with a tannic, juicy and boozy finish. Hold on to this one... this will be great in about 5-10 years. Thanks Todd!

Has a slight cherry to the nose, seems decadent haven’t had tasted it yet. peaty, and a bit of smoke/tobacco. Holy crap, the taste is a disappointment. I mean terrible. Really harsh going down and has a horrible aftertaste. A bit of smoke is about all I can get out of the flavour.

12oz bottle thanks to explosivebeer. Pours a dark brown/black color, identical to Adam except this one has a rosy pink head which I just love. Aroma is fresh French oak, intense vanilla, lavender and a soft sweet cherry aroma. Lots of cherry/vanilla notes and a nice intertwining at that. Flavor is the same, with regular Adam detectable under the oak and cherry and vanilla components. The body is a little flat, this could use more carbonation. Sweet though not sticky or cloying. I find the regular Adam to be a more complex and nuanced beer. While the cherry and wood create a nice new marriage of flavor I don’t think it improves upon the original. Though this is a nice change of pace and I’m glad it was made.