Hair of the Dog Fred

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

Pours a dark amber color with a small white head. Very sweet smelling, very malty, some caramel, just a small dose of some hops. Very sharp bitter malt flavor, with hops mixed in as well. A little more bitter in the finish and especially the aftertaste. The malts seem to overpower most of the flavor in the front, almost a little bit too much. Maybe a little more balance is needed here. Still good, but maybe a tone down on the malts and sweetness would be more to my liking.

Fred kicks butt. Poured golden brown, with a thick frothy head. Lots of malt and sweets in the nose, lots of malt and hops in the flavor, good blend. Mouthfeel is smooth.

Poured amber with creamy off whtie head that lingered til the last drop. Aroma of spice, sweet malt, and spice. Pretty hoppy taste with a good malt background. Well balanced. Hints of fruit and spice throughout. Pretty smoothe for being 10%.

Cloudy brownish-copper body topped by a large beige head leaving good lacings. Like a good catchy song by talented musicians, appears relatively simple until you start dissecting it. The malt profile is like a yummy sweet spicy waffle topped by a thick layer of delicious smooth butterscotch. Quite a few spices but no particular one stands out. Buried in that rich body also hide some fruity flavours (apricots? Plums?). And let’s not forget the large amount of unidentifiable hops. Very creamy, very hoppy, rather spicy and overall somewhat “dirty”. The alcohol is fairly apparent but it fits this over-the-top extravaganza. The beer is sweet, maybe a bit too sweet for me but I suspect this could be fixed with a little aging. Brewed to honour a beer writer. Safest way to make sure a beer writer writes good things about your beer.

12 oz. bottle (batch 63) via a trade awhile back (sorry, I forgot who) - Pours a slightly hazy deep amber color with a huge two and a half finger thick off white head. As the head SLOWLY faded, it left some thick, layered lacing behind. Aroma is floral, pineapple, oranges, and cookie dough. Flavor is full of esters (pineapple,oranges) and sweet toasted malt. Palate is smooth with only a slight fruity aftertaste. Medium to full body. Alcohol is slightly noticeable. Another excellent beer from HotD. Thanks to whoever sent this.

A bold American with typically large amounts of hops, much needed to keep this brash fella in check, but also subtleties that are mostly left out in more ordinary products: beautiful orange notes, autumn grasses and a lingering sense of something well done. Sits pretty in the glass with enticing sunset hues and a fairly ephemeral foam. Good for plunging into think-mode.

Batch #66. From the bottle it poured an amberish, orange color with a thin white head on top that left behind nice lacing. The aroma is strong of dark fruits, sweet malts, caramel and brown sugar, and some light citrus hops in there as well. The taste follows much of the same, but with a heavy alcohol kick. It was definitely a full bodied beer that finished clean and smooth, but with the alcohol burn on the way down. My bottle was somewhat messed up from the long trip to my house, so it may have shaken up the alcohol a lot, but I don’t know. It was a great beer that will sneak up on you and give you some of the hair of the dog in the morning if you drink too many.

[Bottle from Tom] Sharp citric aroma, caramel malt, orange blossom, some amontillado sherry notes. Very full body, fruity and dry and bitter.