Hair of the Dog Fred from the Wood

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

12 oz bottle, Batch 64, RateBeer release, via Liquid Solutions. Pours a dark copper colored body with a good amount of fine to small chunkies churning about. Nice creamy and foamy off-white head with excellent retention. Nose is a mix of heavy syrupy malt, oak, vanilla, alcohol, fruitiness, yeast, toffee, and tobacco. Heavy thick toffee and caramel malt flavors grab you first, fading to a finish with raw oak, tobacco, alcohol, and yeast. There’s a nice balance struck here between the heavy sweet malt and hefty bittering hops, there’s plenty of both. Mouthfeel is very full bodied and a little thick and syrupy. Nice pleasant fine carbonation that’s active yet soft. This was pretty darn good. Certainly appears that it will age very well. Thank you so much Alan Sprints!

12 oz, batch 64 rate beer edition. Via trade with Kramer17801, many thanks. I’ve been looking forward to this brew for quite some time now. Pours orangey amber with a ring of white head that barely covers the cloudy body of this brew. The nose evokes alchol, dried fruit and complete sweetness. The taste is sweet and strong and truly delicious. Although I have yet to rate regular Fred, the oaky quality can be noticed in the taste. This brew really captures what a good barley wine should be, a sipper that lingers in the mouth long enough that it never really feels like the beer is gone until the glass is finally empty. Another stellar brew from HotD.

Bottle (sampled at the Duesseldorf Gathering): Light amber coloured, small lacing off-white head; strong sweet-bitter flavour, light to medium bodied, sticky MF; strong, sweet-bitter, cough-syrup-like finish........

Ratebeer bottles, courtesy of Solan and kramer17801, thanks Alan and Jason! Hazy orange pour, quickly receding pure white head. Carbonation looks very heavy. Body looks very full and sticky. Translucent oily coating surrounds the liquid before me. Citric hops and glazed hops lead in the aroma, cedar wood and caramel follow. This very intoxicating aroma also features notes of apricots, dates, big orange cake, some smoke and sweet bready caramel malt. Reminds of Immort Ale somewhat. Flavor has more citric hops, even drier woodiness. The wood flavor increases exponentially in depth and complexity throughout the mouthfeel, most notably in the long and lovely finish. I think this would pair admirably with Unagi and peanut sauce, ginger soup as well. The wood flavor is stunning both in aroma and freshness, ferociously attacking and caressing the palate with it’s gracious presence. Much more intense, flavorful and enjoyable than expected. Alan Sprints did a wonderful job creating this special brew.

Bottle (RateBeer release) - thanks to blankboy. Bright copper-orange colour with a slight haze and a small off-white head. Nice nose of sweet fruit, vanilla, whisky and wood. Soft mouthfeel. Flavour holds a lot of oak, vanilla and bourbon, some pineapple and citrus, and a warm, lingering finish. Very good! Thanks for sharing, Paul!

Bottled at the Düsseldorf gathering. Orange pour, with fruity oak aroma. little head. Some sweet fruitiness, hops,alcohol, slight vanilla, bourbon. very nice brew for me.

Bottle at the Düsseldorf Gathering. Muddy, amber body. Off-white, fizzy head. Very intense aroma of honey, flowers, vanilla, wine, barrels, orange, ... even somewhat too intense, reminds me in some kind of way also like jam smells. Moderately bitter, moderately sweet flavour. Nice complex flavour of vanilla and fruits, but not overwhelming.

Dusseldorf Gathering, Bottled. Not bad but plain aroma: sweet, apple and some aroma hops. Cloudy, orange color, beige head, good lace. Sweet, fruity, well hopped, oak and bourbon (not strong, just right), apple, vanilla, sticky mouthfeel. Nice.