Hair of the Dog Rose

Formerly brewed at Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Portland, Oregon USA

Hazy golden amber body is topped by a very ample, creamy, off-white head that takes for ever to even shrink, much less do anything resemble fade. Very fruity nose with cherry pits and apricots studded with cloves. The flavor has an interesting little bit of choclate malt riding underneath everything else. Very strong flavor and aroma, but not overbearing.

Bottle Pours a cloudy pale amber with a huge frothy/foamy head. Floral and apple hints are major players in the aroma. A bit like over ripe apples, a bit sour. Milky sediment on the bottom. Taste is sharp pungent astringent and somewhat metallic. Flavors are pretty strong and busy. Drinkable though and a nice finish.

Murky amber with a foamy white head. Malty nose. Medium bodied, watery texture, some carbonation. Flavor was malty and yeasty and slightly bitter and not very special. There are much better tripels to enjoy. So much fuss over Hair of the Dog. Haven’t been blown away by any so far.

Cloudy golden with a big long lasting white head. The nose is malty and wheat sweet and sick. The taste is very malty and wheaty with sourness. The mouth is alcoholy but not with the vapour feel.

Bottled. Foggy golden with a large beige head. Two faced beer. One minute you think it’s a bubblegum blond the next a classic trappist. Tangy, sweetness that was dispersed across the palate in uneven measures. [London gathering: Spiesy, Duff, chris_o, Marty-D and SilkTork]

Bottle #15 at Spiesy’s. The first of a run of strong beers brewed in the US. I didn’t think this was as bad as Silk did, but I was still way down on what most other raters have scored it, so there might be something in the bad bottle, or excessive travelling, theory. Sort of orangey colour. The aroma was very yeasty, with a solid citric backbone. The flavours were indistinct spice, tangy hops, but, most of all, sweet candy sugar (which I don’t care for particularly). Rather coarse, sticky, sweet and sour finish. As Silk says, all a bit confused and ill-defined. Bottle (bottle conditioned).

Bottle #38. Poured a Yellow-Orange. Nice fluffy white head, seemed to last a while. Nice lacing. Good carbonation. To me flavor is balanced with nice malt and hops. Candi is noticable as is alcohol. Pleasant to drink.

Bottle @ Spiesy’s gaff. I’ve wanted a Hair of the Dog beer for a while so was very pleased that Duff brought this to the gathering. Huge disappointment. The aroma is odd and not clearly defined - it hints in the direction of an acidic lambic but also pulls toward a Triple. It’s muddled and murky. It’s a bottle conditioned beer so perhaps the constant travelling has disturbed it too much - the appearance is a cloudy pale yellow. Taste is yeast and a nasty hop pellet bitterness. Quite nasty.