Hair of the Dog Rose

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

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip

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Bottle shared by shigadeyo. Poured clear brown color with an averaqge frothy white head that lasted with good lacing. Complex spicy fruit and yeasty aroma. Medium body with a sticky texture and flat carbonation. Medium to heavy fruity sweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of moderate to long duration with a small alcohol bite. This is a good sweet beer.

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. Coppar colour with an off-white head. Aroma is alcohol, yeast, caramel, peppar. Flavour is sweet, alcohol, yeast, caramel, flower, pepper. Strange beer, but still a nice one.

Batch #38. Pours a hazy yellow in color with an averaged sized white head. Decent lacing. Yesty, spicy, and fruity smells with hints of lemon. Sweet, fruity and spicy tastes. Overly fizzy body for my taste.

An hazy reddish brown ale with a thick off white head. The cap gave way too easily, although there is a fair amount of carbonation left. Some muck covered the cap, ugly and uninviting. The aroma is off-putting, with roses, wet bark, and fungal notes. In mouth, a sweet candy sugar with funkyness, a light sour touch, wood-rot, and warming alcohol. Rich bodied, but something is wrong here, overall. The infamous LCBO private import, Jan 2007. Batch X.

Batch #38. I was very excited about my first taste of the Hair of the Dog, and if this beer tasted half as good as it looked we’d be in business, but it doesn’t. Pours a cloudy golden colour with an enormous rocky off-white head. Aroma is almost completely overwhelmed by diacetyl butteriness. Underneath that there is apple, peach, and pear fruitiness with a hint of spice. The flavour is also a massive dose of butter. After about 5-10 minutes of swirling to try to get rid of it I still get a muddled mess of flavours, piny hops, some mintiness, light yeastiness, and pale fruity malt. If it wasn’t for the name on the bottle I don’t think I would have even looked for anything nice to say but would have gone straight to the drain with it, which is where it ended up going anyway. Maybe I got a bad bottle.

UPDATED: JAN 17, 2005 Rerate: Batch #36 rated on 1/18/05: Pours a dark amber copper with a large clumpy off-white head and lots of floaties. Real sweet, sugary, rum-raisin aroma with a faint hint of Belgian yeast. Body is kinda thin sugary sweet and one-sided. Seems like too much candi-sugar and not enough real malt. Still an interesting brew that could be really good with some tweaking. Batch #20 rated on 2/23/03: Light, barely cloudy bronze color with absolutely no head and minimal carbonation. Complex sugary malt, bready yeast aroma and noticeable alcohol. Sweet palate but a thin watery mouthfeel. Finishes dry and woody. Still hides its alcohol well, but seems like a cross between a barleywine and a tripel. Judging by other ratings and batch numbers, I’d say my bottle was probably a little past due, but this shows that it doesn’t age very well.

Orange colour, verging on the pink. Head gone in seconds. Nutty nose, madeirisation, honey. Taste confirms the madeirisation and honey tones. I fail to find the typical candy sugar flavour - dryness excepted - and I fear this sample must have aged prematurely. Dry, but well-bodied. Slick mouthfeel. Typical taste of 4-5 year old B. triple. Checked, sample is not beyond BBd - so prematurely aged. I like this, but I understand that's not everybody's preference.

Batch 34 thanks to kyzr. This beer is unlike any other tripel that I have head. Pours with a small, rocky quickly dissapearing head that left no lacing covering a hazy dark amber body that is way too dark for the syle. Aroma of brandy, plums, cherries, raisins, raspberries, sugar and honey. Taste is yeasty with fruits (rasisns and currants), canilla and candi sugar. Taste is good, but not faithful to the style in the slightest. On the syrupy side and nearly flat (again not too style). Alcohol is pronounced for 6%. Unsure how old this batch is. A good beer, but not a tripel in my book! Last 1/4 of the bottle, when added to my glass turned the beer the same color and clarity of mud.

UPDATED: JUN 7, 2004 Batch 37 - Sampled June 2003
Clear medium yellow. Huge white head tries to jump out of the glass. Sweet cherry and sugar aroma. Incredible dark cherry flavor, but subtle enough to let the beer be appreciated fully. Somewhat abrasive first touch on the tongue, but the finish is pleasent with a quick alcoholic tinge at the end.