Hair of the Dog Matt

Brewed by Hair of the Dog Brewing Company
Style: Traditional Ale
Portland, Oregon USA

damn good tons of complexity from the barrels....6 months defintally did this beer some good...thanks to who shared this bottle with me on the last dock sale!

Rating #2500. 12oz bottle, courtesy of ¾. Thanks, Mike! Pours a murky, oily, deep amber-tinged cola color; very light carbonation and minimal head formation; nice density of color and pleasantly viscous. The aroma on this is very dense and smoky: lots of smoked meats, caramelized brown sugar, and nicely charred barrel notes: wood, light bourbon, slightly warming; this has a huge amount of heft and density to it: highly attenuated, very creamy and viscous, seamless, and lots of smoke and leather. Full mouthfeel: very minimal carbonation here, but it works well for what this is: an enormously dense and chewy, liqueur-like beer with lots of leather, tobacco, and smoked meat notes; hugely complex, very much leather and tobacco dominated; the barrel character provides some toastiness and charred wood notes, along with a light amount of bourbon / liqueur character; beautifully integrated, (again) seamless, creamy and viscous and all kinds of complexity; I was disappointed by Michael, but this is HOTD at its finest all over again: hugely attenuated and developed malt core, perfect barrel presence, and incredibly generous in its notes, striking them clearly: tobacco, wood, smoked meats, light fruitiness, and soft bourbon; absolutely gorgeous, and another masterpiece from Alan Sprints. Ali, who doesn’t usually care much for this style of beer, also gave it an unofficial 4.4, and this is why we’re married. Long finish of charred wood, leather, tobacco, and vanilla-tinged bourbon notes.

Christmas Day we had the chance to have some family over for a tasting and I was lucky enough to share this with a few of them. I always go a little jig when I’m doing a new HotD beer because I know I’m in for a treat of some kind, and this was no different. Body is a cherrywood reddish-brown, still body with no head. A decadent aroma full of maple syrup, rummy raisins, figs, mocha, oak and bourbon. Flavor was equally divine, with tons of rich caramel, sharp smoke, pungent wood, bourbon, appley....clearly something to be savored in a special time and place. Christmas Day with family was definitely it.

Thank you God in Heaven for allowing me to try this masterpiece. $18 for a 12 oz. at Brouwer’s (where I tried the beer), and $25 at Bottleworks, where is was out of stock. Nice black color. This beer has a nice viscous pour. Not much carbonation on this thing, except for a few bubbles popping out. You can tell that if you were able to produce a head on this thing it would have a deep dark chocolate head. A lovely aromatic aroma of chocolate and bourbon. The smoke isn’t coming out much at first, but as the beer gets a bit warmer I smelling the subtle hints of smoke. Some touches of wood come through in the aroma as well. Just a very nice deep and complex aroma. I thought this beer was going to be undercarbonated, but it is far from it. The carbonation gives a nice smooth backing to the chocolate and strong bourbon flavor. The bourbon flavor isn’t strong to where you get that sour-type bourbon flavor. The smoke comes out more and more as the beer gets warmer, and you being to taste it later on. I can see how there were apples used at some point in the brewing/aging process, because I get a VERY subtle fruit flavor. This beer is awesome and I am very happy to have tried and very satisfied.

Bottle, Caramel. Dark fruit and wood tones. Finishes slightly dry, bitter. Fantastic.

From the Bottle at the Falling Rock Tap House, Denver 26/09/2009 Bourbon malt aroma. Dark coloured smooth on the palate and strong in alcohol with a crisp dry and bitter finish.

Big thanks to mreusch for this one! The bottle looks great, the beer in the glass is deep black, small head. Strong malty aroma. Starts also very strong, intense notes of chocolate, nougat, coffee. Also a little bit alcoholic, warming. Finish a bit prickly-woody. Goes down soft like velvet, warm burning aftertaste. A wonderful beer!

Bottle. Pours a dark brown color with a small off-white head. Has a spicy malty caramel and chocoalte aroma with some weak hints of smoke. Fruity malty dark fruit flavor, chocolate flavor hints of caramel and some weak hints of smoke. Has a slightly roasted malty fruity dark fruit finish with hints of chocolate, caramel and smoke. Vert nice!