People have been making pilgrimages to Portland, Oregon for Alan Sprints’ beer since the dark ages — back when hazy and sour beers weren’t made that way intentionally. His Hair of The Dog Brewing is proud to be one of the first breweries in America specializing in the production of high alcohol, bottle conditioned beers as well as experimenting with the barrel aging process since 1994. Sprints has 180 oak barrels used to age his beer from 6 months to 8 years. Today, Peaks and Pints gives you a taste of Sprints’ talent in a beer flight we call Craft Beer Crosscut 5.14.19: A Flight of Hair of the Dog.
Craft Beer Crosscut 5.14.19: A Flight of Hair of the Dog
Hair of the Dog Adam From the Wood 2018
12% ABV
Inspired by the historical style Adambier from Germany, Hair of the Dog’s Adam is a strong, dark smoky ale aged for an extended time in barrels for deeply bready malt flavors layered with roast, smoke, and leather. It’s astonishingly complex and punishingly strong at 10-percent alcohol. This is Hair of the Dog Adam From the Wood is Adam living several years in a tiny American oak house. First released in 2000, this 12-percent Adambier hits the nose with caramel, brown sugar, tons of raisin, light chocolate, little campfire roastiness and HUGE bourbon kick like kisses from your grandma on Mother’s Day. On the tongue, expect dark fruits like an imperial quad, dates, plums, more little campfire roastiness, oak and bourbon.
Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam From the Wood 2019
13.5% ABV
Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam from the Wood is aged with locally grown black cherries in bourbon and sherry casks for 15 months. It hits the nose with dark fruit, oak, and vanilla smells. The taste has a ton going on: vanilla, oak, deep malts, pitted fruits, figs, and bourbon-coated cherries.
Hair of the Dog Bourbon Fred From the Wood 2017
12% ABV
Fred Eckhardt’s book, A Treatise on Lager Beers, published in 1969, was the first modern book about beer. During his stint as the Oregonian’s first beer columnist he penned The Essentials of Beer Style, helping many homebrewers understand their craft and in turn helped launch many craft brewing careers, including Alan Sprints, who created an American strong ale simply named Fred, which made with aromatic and rye malts and includes 10 different hop varieties — Northern Brewer, Progress, First Gold, Crystal, Fuggle, Willamette, Tettnang, Chinook, Spalt, Saaz and Strisselspalt for caramel, bitter hops and some alcohol. Hair of the Dog Bourbon Fred From the Wood is the strong ale aged in bourbon barrels. It’s all up in the nose with bourbon, plus IHOP, coconut, macaroon, vanilla, and sweet heat before the tongue receives a bourbon blanket with a vanilla and sweet oak chip pillow.
Hair of the Dog Bourbon Fred From the Stone 2019
12% ABV
Hair of the Dog Bourbon Fred From the Stone 2019 is Fred aged in a concrete egg aging tank. Concrete egg aging tanks are said to be extra porous, good for wild yeasts and bacteria to breathe and make a home in, and they keep cool and even temperatures naturally, as well as adding a unique minerality to the beers flavor profile. Hair of the Dog Bourbon Fred From the Stone has subdued minerality as a result of egg aging, with bourbon vanilla flavors and a smooth mouthfeel.
Hair of the Dog Blue Dot
7% ABV
Hair of the Dog Blue Dot is an IPA named after planet Earth with organic Pilsner malt, rye malt and a combo of intense hops. Somewhat pungent in the nose with tons of herbal, floral, citrus grapefruit, raw honey and fresh mint the Blue Dot is a full-bodied, smooth and creamy IPA. Then the hops come to play with a raw leafy coarseness and big smack of grapefruit, ripe pineapple and some sticky resins on the palate followed by malt sweetness, a touch of honey, some spicy character unique capped with the addition of rye.
