Hair of the Dog Fred from the Wood

Brewed by Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Portland, Oregon USA

Lovely warm orange pour, sticky cream head leaving lace all over the glass and lingering in a nice skim. At first sniff, freshly turned mulch, medicine, bile. Further inquiry reveals vanilla, smoke, toasted sugar, wet fresh-sawn oak boards, cloves. Lively, rough, interesting. And now a sip. An army of wood ants appear on my tongue, each give a tart nip, then are replaced with a molasses sweetness, slowly fading to a vapory, smokey finish. Lingering tannins coat the mouth. As the glass progresses, the riot of flavors move toward cherries and vanilla. What an intense beer! My mouth is slightly confused and frightened, but I like it. Thanks so much for sharing this one Hezron!

Bottle: Dirty caramel, hazy, large foamy off-white head, clumpy lacing, soft carbonation.   Strong woody aroma, quite sweet.   Sweet malty start, very oakish on the tongue.   Good balance of hop bitterness and malt sweetness.   Oak aspect is strong, yet fits well with the style and this particular beer.   This is too easy to drink.   Oak lovers, or even Cedar lovers, will really enjoy this beer.   Its odd, the wood seems like a cross between the aformentioned Oak and Cedar.   As a Barley Wine, it seems very soft, yet robust.   Simple, yet quite divine.   The wood carries this one from start to finish, and is the strongest factor.   For a young Barley Wine its very palatable.   It would be interesting to see how age affects this one.   As is, its quite pleasant and quite clean.   Thanks Bill for the bottles!

Batch 64 with a big thanks to Brock_Landers. Pours murky orange with a large head. Fair lacing. Huge aroma of oak with some sour grapes. I’d even say bretty, but it seems like I would be in the minority.
Taste bring up the sourness over the wood. Also tasted a little toffee and vanilla. A bit vinious. Flavor is heavily sour and moderately sweet. Alcohol is well covered. Tangy texture. Super tasty.

Re-rate: My bottle (341ml) shared with HogTownHarry & garthicus. I last had this at a time when it seemed like every 3rd beer was barrel-aged and I was quite sick of it and the rating suffered just a bit because of it. Now, a considerable time later I can appreciate this beer for what it is. Not much to add from what I last wrote, just that’s it’s quite nice. A nice balance of oak, vanilla, malt & hops. Good stuff.
original rating: 8.4.7.4.15: 3.8
Bottle. Batch 64. Pours a cloudy orange-amber with some floaties and an average size lasting off-white head. Aroma of oak up front followed by sweet malt, fruit and hops. In the aroma the oak/bourbon is not overpowering which is nice, but in the flavour it’s much more in your face, not insanely but still a bit too much for my liking, along with sweet malt, fruit, some hops and a slightly boozy and bitter finish. Medium to full bodied. I’ve rated this slightly higher then I actually enjoyed it because of the predominance of oak and how sick I am of that, but it’s still a very well made beer and I did like it, I just didn’t love it.

Bottle. Rate Beer Speacial Release. Thanks to Jason (Kramer17801) for this nice bottle. Pours a clear amber color with an off-white head. Sweet malty slightly alcoholic vanilla aroma. With some hints of wood. Smooth oak malty vanilla flavor with some hints of alcohol. Has a dry oak finish with lots of vanilla in the aftertaste.

New 2007 bottle: pours a deep amber cloudy orange-red coor wih a 1/2 inch white head that lasts. Sweet aroma of peaches and apricots and wood. Taste is sweet honeylike malts and fruits up front and then a spicy woodiness and hops take over as it goes down. As the beer goes down the bitterness of the oak takes over and dries all over the tongue. Truely unique and the most woody beer i have ever had!

Bottle courtesy of Hogtownharry: Poured a medium yellow color ale with a small foamy white head with minimal retention and lacing. Aroma of oak and sugar is totally dominated by hot alcohol. Taste is totally dominated by hot burning alcohol which is not something that I am usually fond of. Some oak and sweet malt were discernable but still totally overshadowed by the alcohol. I honestly could hardly taste the original Fred in here and I sure could not tell if there were any hops in there. I’m glad I got the chance to try that one but it sure is not something I will seek again.

Bottle. Amber colour with a nice white head. Stronge wood aroma with hints of dried fruit and malt. Also strong flavour of wood, oak, sweetness and becomes someway complex and very nice.