Hair of the Dog Matt

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

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

RBAG 2012. THANK YOU JEFF!!!Ruby brown pour with no cap. So much going on in this aroma......It be epic! Vanilla, brown sugar, limited soya sauce, hints of sweet purple grape, and I swear I’m smelling celery but that seems more the wrong. Taste is so phenomenal I just came. Cinnamon, cherry/maybe grape, tons of wood, mild smoke, more vanilla. The bourbon aging is perfect. Caramel malts turning slightly chocolaty, beer starting to get sweet. WOW what a great beer it held up to its hype and I probably would found many more flavors if not for the limited quantity I had.

RBAG 2012. Had this one relatively sober and thankful for that. Pours dark brown with no head, but instead some moderate tan lacing. Aroma is of wood, malt, grass, dark fruit, and smoke. Taste is very boozy. Beneath the booze is wood, malt, dark fruit, vanilla, smoke, grass, and even a little chocolate. Mouthfeel is very thick and sticky. Finish is very hot, almost peppery. I didn’t get many wine characteristics out of this, but instead got lots of booze soaked wood and preserve flavors. Very well balanced, even with everything going on in this brew. A real pleasure to try this brew.

RBAG! - Bottle, with MASSIVE thanks to Vertical Bacon Strips! Pours hazy toffee brown, thin pale tan head, no real lacing to speak of. Nose is soya sauce, tar, leather, sausage, toffee, smoke, tobacco. Fuck but this smells amazing! Flavours of toffee, smoke, caramel, marmalade, tobacco. A rare beer genuinely worth the hype! Great stuff!

Bottle from RBAG 2012. Pours black with brown around the edges. Smell is lots of caramelized sugar, vanilla, wood. The taste is a lot of what the taste is. Smell i didn’t pick up the smoke as much, slightly more prominent in the tast ebut subtle. Smooth rich deep toffee, vanilla. Deep rich complex wood and tobacco. Alcohol contirbutes to the flavour, but I would never guess its 12.5%. One of the smoothest finishes and flavour progressions I’ve experienced in a beer - again more vanilla. I would absolutely buy this if I saw it.

RBAG. From 330ml brown bottle. Black pour thin ring of tan foam. Nose has brown sugar, booze, tangy. Smokey taste, tangy, brown sugary malts. Finishes sweet, lots of bourbon. Complex, but very drinkable.

Bottle, 2010 vintage. Pours black with no real head. Smells of cherry, vanilla, smoke, wood, toffee, apple and brown sugar. All at the same exact time, intense. Tastes peaty and smokey, with a strong sweetness and very smooth toffee feel. Fantastic but compared to the Deliverance I just drank it could use refinement (but that’s tough to live up to).

Bottle at HOTD. $18. Pours to a super dark brown body with no head. The aroma is amazing. Like a really aged Adam with sweet calvados and vanilla laden oaky bourbon. The flavor is where this beer is perfect. Rich chocolate syrup like with delicious calvados and vanilla and oak laden bourbon. Masterfully blended. It is hard to describe how complex this is. The palate is rich and not alcoholic at all. Rich and creamy and full bodied. Not sugary sticky but has a residual sweetness. My girlfriend is angry at me because I’m introducing her to so many good beers she doesn’t want to drink the "swill" any more.

After several failed attempts at landing this beer I finally found someone that would throw me one. Thanks. Shared with others, this beer is still. Served with Adam, Adam from the Wood, Cherry Adam from the Wood, Fred, Bourbon Fred, Doggie Claws ’05. Beer is completely flat, brown, sweet aroma, dark, legs on the glass which is a Stone IRS glass for those keeping score. Aroma is malt, bourbon, apples, sweet, oak. Beer is medium in body, really sweet, strong, very dry, a little too dry for me, but the more I drink the more I like it. Strong, sweet, nice liquor backbone, leading up to a bitterness-less finish that leave the mouth dry. I would have liked a less dry finish but ultimately this was good. Serving type: bottle