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 26, 2005 I don’t quite remember the batch number, but it was not more than a couple months old. The appearance is stuff of legend, bottle-conditioned with sediments floating in the snifter, beautiful cloudy amber body and a HOTD’s HUGE off-white head, rocky, sticky, like a snowy mountain chain. Aroma is mostly complex stages of hops, it’s easy to believe there are 10 varieties, there’s the big american C hops character combined with the refined English ones. Very relaxing to sniff on and ultra-complex, like a touch of vanilla on fresh citrus (grapefruit). In mouth this dances on the tongue, nice effervescence, creamy, full-bodied, complex maple malt sweetness and an obvious balancing yeastiness. This is a delicious big generous beer. Long Life HOTD. Tasting this with my buddy MartinT, we came to the conclusion that given the choice to pick only 2 beers from a same brewery to have an infinite supply of, HOTD with Fred and Adam would probably win over quite anyone. *High-fives Jazz88*
A re-sample of an aged bottle (batch 36 in october 2004) proposed a terrific alcohol hiding job and far more subdued hoppiness. I was not quite able to appreciate all the hop garden/maze in there as well as the first time, but it remained just as adorable. I would have raised the score higher if it weren’t for the feeling that this is actually so sweet in a maple syrup kind of way that it becomes hard to finish the bottle. Definitely a beer you feel you could drink fast, but that you must drink slow to enjoy fully. World-Class.

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.