Hair of the Dog Fred

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

Bottle from batch 59. Pours a dark goldish color with a little white head to it. Has a nice carmel, wood and some kind of fruit in the smell. The taste is just like the smell. Carmel being the prodominate flavor

What an excellent beer. I’ve always admired Hair of the dog for their unique beers, and to me, this is the one that puts it all together beautifully. It pours with a golden color and a giant, fluffy, whipped cream like head. It smells like beer candy. Caramel, toffee and light, dry pilsner malts show through nicely in the aroma. The two finger head has hardly diminished at all after a few minutes. The taste is amazing, with sweet caramel, butterscotch, rum, and a complex spicy character. A very interesting combination of Belgian, pilsner, and American hoppy beers. It works well for me. It finishes with a dry, bitterness. Great beer.

Bottle from Lone Hill Liquor.. Batch 73.. Cracked the bottle and got a slow gush...Poured like half the bottle and got like a 4 finger head...Pours an orange amber with a fluffy white head...Aroma is honey, fruit and alcohol.. Flavor is caramel, fruit and that rye bitterness.. I felt like it was a little over carbonated but still good.

Vertical tasting with csbosox of Batch 49 (shared by csbosox, bottled 19-June-03), Batch 67 (purchased at Bottleworks in Seattle, bottled 26-Sept-07), and Batch 70 (purchased at Bottleworks in Seattle, bottled 1-March-08). Thanks for the information Alan!

Appearance:
Batch 49 - hazed ruby orange, small off white head that falls quick. Cloudiest of the three.
Batch 67 - slight haze ruby orange, visible fine carbonation intermittently floats up. One inch white head falls with some lacing.
Batch 70 - golden orange, mostly clear. One inch white head falls quick. Nice lacing.

Aroma:
Batch 49 - toffee, dark dried fruit, some lighter peppery yeast. Currants. Really soft and enveloping. Beautiful.
Batch 67 - caramel toffee, soft apple fruit, straw and hay. Much milder aroma than the 49. Nice, just not as much personality as 49.
Batch 70 - citrus fruit, some bright caramel honey sweetness. Noticeable alcohol heat. This smelled noticeably younger than the others.

Flavor:
Batch 49 - really full and developed caramel toffee, followed by an earthy spice type flavor that was maybe the rye, hard to pin down. Finish is the currants and dried fruits. Finish lingers a bit and gets some dirty earthiness in it. Oxidation is evident, but melds really nicely.
Batch 67 - toffee, same rye character as 49, woody, organic, mineral, spice black pepper in the end. Alcohol mildly evident way in the back.
Batch 70 - bright citrus and caramel maltiness, the woody resiney rye is behind that. Very evident heat. As with the nose, it was remarkable how much younger this tasted than the 67.

Palate:
Batch 49 - mostly flat. Medium to heavy body, coats mouth perfectly with a nice lingering sweetness.
Batch 67 - mostly flat. Soft and velvety, medium to slight heavy body. Lingering heat in the finish.
Batch 70 - mostly flat. Much thinner than the others, bright alcohol heat in the finish.

Overall:
Batch 49 - really nice, very much in that zone of aged sweetness and melded oxidation that I like my Barley Wines.
Batch 67 - had some of the characteristics of the 49 that I liked, as well as some of the characteristics of the 70 that I did not. Still nice, but not to the level of the 49.
Batch 70 - disjointed and weirdly hot. Still an interesting enough beer, but really came into its own with age.

Final Notes:
It was very interesting to see the progression of time with this beer. It certainly improved with age, which has become increasingly rare for me with aged beers. Thanks again for sharing the Batch 49 with me Chris, it really made this tasting.

Scores:
Batch 49 - 9,4,8,4,17 - 4.2
Batch 67 - 8,4,8,4,15 - 3.9
Batch 70 - 7,4,7,3,14 - 3.5

Rating #1300. Batch 73. Bottle thanks to scrizzz. Pours a clear bright orange color with an enormous off white foam that collapses very slowly. Some small white particles will creep in if you pour the bottom of the bottle. The aroma is fruits, peaches, pears, apples, brown sugar, sweet maltiness. The taste is sweet again, sugar, maple syrup, brown sugar, then candied fruits, more apples, rum soaked raisins, caramel. A nice beer.

Wow. About as sugary as a tall glass of southern sweet tea. Gross. Just plain gross, imo. All the wonderful fruity barley wine flavors are bludgeoned by the excessive sugars. Forget candy sweet, this is concentrated syrup sweet. I just can’t take it. It tastes like a gum drop with molasses on it. Super excited to try this one, too bad I couldn’t take more than three sips of it.

Batch #75. Pours a hazy deep orange with little head to speak of. Aroma of citrus, orange peel, hops, and pina colada. Enters the mouth creamy and smooth, but as soon as I being to swallow, a sharp alcohol tinge emerges. Flavors is not your typical citrus and hops in that there’s not a floral hops element to it. There’s a whiskey and hops finish which feels a bit overdone. I love how it starts but hate how it finishes.

Lots of Bottle courtesy of theisti. Pured staight down the middle and got a huge fluffy head that settled really slowly. Aroma is malty fruit, nice yeast balance and a lot of bittersweet (molasses?). Lots of honey, mango balance a good hop profile in the flavor, with significant alcohol heat to finish. While I couldn’t drink very many of these, it’s a fine brew. Thanks, Tim.