Top Tastings 2009, Beer sellers: The Beermongers
ABV: 10%
Origin: Portland, Oregon, USA
Website: www.hairofthedog.com
Hair of the Dog Adam
Hair of the Dog, founded in 1993 by Alan Sprints, is now known as one of the most adventurous and consistently high-hitting breweries in the craft brewing heartland of the Pacific Northwest. They clearly started as they meant to go on — this massive and world-beating bottle conditioned ale was the first Hair of the Dog beer. It was originally inspired by brewing historian Fred Eckhardt’s writings on an extinct beer style from Dortmund known as Adambier, but has since been rededicated by the brewers to a late fellow brewer and friend, Adam Kerchival.
Brewed from a grist of organic pilsner barley malt, coloured malts and unmalted barley specially roasted to the brewer’s specification, with a substantial amount of Pacific Northwest hops, the beer comes out near black with a massive light beige head. There’s a sharpish herbal aroma with a note of angelica over leathery dark malt, while the huge palate yields prunes, chocolate, Stilton rind and a complex mix of herbs and spices, with obvious alcoholic weight and a firm hoppy note. The beer softens in a very long finish, with luscious caramel and raisins a prelude to developing drying hops that play out on a complex bitterness.
As well as being rich and beautifully made, it’s a truly distinctive beer and if you haven’t tried it you probably haven’t tasted anything quite like it either. That was certainly my thought when I encountered my first bottle in the salubrious surroundings of speciality gastropub The Monk’s Kettle in San Francisco.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/hair-of-the-dog-adam/568/
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