THE FIRST MAN; A FINE BEER

Notwithstanding the fact that we named our son Adam, HAIR OF THE DOG brewing in Oregon also decided to name one of their unusual, well-crafted, high-ABV beers ADAM as well. You may recall that we tried their DOGGIE CLAWS barleywine a few weeks ago and found it somewhat “wanting”; not so this time with this “old ale”, which is a re-creation of a historic beer style from Dortmund, Germany. It is an exceptionally dark and full-bodied beer, one that Hair of The Dog’s own website asks that you serve as a “dessert beer”. Now I’ll admit that it’s highly rare that I’ll quaff a single brew for dessert, and far more likely that I’ll be drinking it with dinner, or on tap at a bar. This time it was the former, and it worked for me just fine. It has a massive foam head, one that did a cartoonish spill over the side of my glass while I made cartoonish “gaaaaak” sounds. Once that calmed down a bit, I took some time to admire the deep dark reddish-brown color before diving in. ADAM is quite bitter but not annoyingly so; it smells of hops, and that’s ‘cause there are quite a few – 50 IBU’s. It doesn’t taste quite like the “leather” they promise on the bottle (thankfully), but more like muted chocolate and figs. It’s not something I’m gonna throw back all that often but I think these Hair of The Dog cats are onto something with this one. 7/10. Give it a try.