Hair of the Dog Fred

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

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: JUL 3, 2006 Didn’t strike me even remotely as a barley wine. Clearly Belgian in nature, poured a huge tan head over a cloudy, deep amber body. Nose of belgian candy and malts. The tast starts malty and yeasty, finishing with a surprising hop bitterness at the end. An interesting twist. The rye was totally obliterated. 7:3:7:3:16 RERATE: 7/1/06, Batch 63, thanks to Numenor. Medium amber, OK head. Loads of caramel, toffee, and pine. Flavor matches, but has a bit of fruitiness, hay bitterness. No Belgian nature floating in this batch. Rating updated.

MASSIVE head; bronze colored. Honey, pepper, lemon zest nose; spicy in the manner of Duvel. Wonderful balance between malt and hops. Awesome.

Bottle. Cloudy, deep amber/red liquid with minimal off-white head. Really struggled to build any head at all. Aroma is loaded with lots of dark fruit with notes of raisins, plums, sweet pilsner malt, fruity american hops (only lightly), caramel, bread, biscuits and some port. Really nice and complex. Kind of reminds me of a freeze distilled BW I brewed once. Taste is light sweet and medium bitter with lots of caramel and dark fruit and some light alcohol (not disturbing though). Medium to full bodied with low carbonation and sticky, velvety mouthfeel. Beautifully executed BW with lots of fruity action. Really enjoyed it.

An easy gentle sipper. Pours clear, nice head. Malty, bit boozy but not off-putting. Warming alcohol, hops are there but balanced with the malts.

12oz bottle- Batch # 85...Pour is a dark murky orange..Nose is dark fruits, caramel, spice, hops, pine, toffee..Taste is butterscotch, bread, pine, sweetness, caramel, dark fruits, alcohol..

Bottle. Pours cloudy orange with thick white head that lasts a lifetime. Very nice aroma of deied fruit, hops and malt. Apricots, plum, pears, citrus, hint of tobacco, spicy hops, fat malt. Oily mouthfeel of high viscosity. The thickness is perfectly balanced with bitterness that lingers without biting. Wonderful Old Ale or Barley Wine feeling with fresh hops on top. This beer is really well performed. It bounces around in your mouth and takes several different directions in a short time, but doesn't go to far in any of them. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Pours a golden amber with a paperthin head that sticks around with good lacing throughout the drink. Aroma of sweet malts with caramel up front. Also raisins figs and dates with bitter hops in the back. Taste follows the nose but man is this sweet. Tasty but definitely a sipper. Hops are present but a bit overpowered by the malts. I’m glad I tried it and I can respect what they put together but not my personal favorite beer.

Bottle. Murky golden pour with a huge fluffy white head. Aroma is pine hop, bread, sweet sugary candy, and malt. Slick palate yet crisp with carbonation. Taste is rich caramel malt, resin, and sugary sweetness. Quite bitter mid-taste but finishes well balanced.

355ml bottle. Pours out amber with a modicum of head. Aroma has lots of phenolic, smokey and endless caramel notes. Taste is smooth buttery caramel mixed in with pine and fruit from the hops. When I say ’mixed in’ I should elaborate: the synergy between malt and hops here is astounding. They work in perfect harmony to create an incredible drinking experience. Neither element overwhelms, but they both contribute to the final product superbly. This big beer went down dangerously easily and left me with a huge grin on my face. Fantastic.

Drank this out of a bottle at DLD, bottle was from 1999. Yeah, 13 years aged. Aroma was subtle, with notes of toffee and a touch of chocolate. I enjoyed this, it was like a candy bar - sweet SKOR. My notes describe this as "amazeballs" which pretty much explained both how I felt that day, and that I should probably stop reviewing beers that day.

Bottle poured into my HOTD tulip glass. A - Pours deep amber orange with no head at all, only a tiny bit of foam around the edge of the glass, leaving no lace at all down the glass. S - Smells of caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, fruity yeast, oak and a good amount of alcohol. This one smells really sweet with some booze creeping in at the end of each sniff. T - Starts off with plenty of sugary sweetness that never really goes away. Hints of fruit, vanilla, oak and some dulled piney hops offer some break from the sweetness but it doesn’t last long. Finish is sweet with quite a bit of booze burn, lingering on the palate long after the finish. M - Smooth body with a ton of sweet flavors and moderately low carbonation, almost none really. There is still quite a bit of booze present in this one. O - I liked this one but it never really wow’d me in any way. The lack of carbonation really didn’t help either. I wouldn’t turn another down but I won’t be running out to get more.