Doggie Claws - Hair of the Dog Brewing Company / Brewery and Tasting Room

Reaper16

Alabama

4.35/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

12oz. bottle -- 2009 vintage -- served into a tulip glass

Pours a murky shade of amber-orange. It's quite mucky looking in the center of the body, but the edges of the body look sorta' like an IPA if you hold the glass to direct light. There's next to no head on this bottle (I've heard there's some carbonation issues with the 2009 vintage, so this has me worried). There's a little wisp of a ring of off-white foam here that doesn't really lace.

The aroma is not very aggressive or complex, but it shows promise. There's notes of brown sugar right upfront, and like a sugar cookie component, too. Some light spices, nutmeg in particular. It's much weaker than it would have been fresh, but there's still some sweet-citrus hop notes here. Mostly oranges, which work well with the sugary smells that provide the backbone of the aroma.

The flavor of this 2.5 year old bottle of Doggie Claws is far superior to its aroma. Raw sugarcane and gingersnap cookies provide the base malt flavors here. There's somehow still a decent hop presence here. It lacks any bitterness, but lends sweet orange and apricot flavors to accentuate the caramelized, sugary malt flavors. This beer at this age doesn't taste hot, but there's some alcohol notes that work well with the perceptible good-oxidation. The finish of the beer is like if you squeezed an apricot over sugarcane.

The beer isn't really that carbonated. It isn't flat though, not is it watery. It's more like a light syrup than anything, which makes it feel in some respects like a liquor. Which is more or less what an aged Barleywine often tastes like.

Overall, this is a very nice Barleywine. It's smooth and deep and cohesive. I'm super impressed with how well Hair of the Dog beers react to the aging process. I wish I had more HotD bottles to subject to even longer ageing spells.

Serving type: bottle

06-12-2012 05:05:27 | More by Reaper16

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