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Number 500
A couple of weeks ago, I headed over to Hair of the Dog on a rumor that the brewery was preparing to release a new beer, which is, for the tiny brewery, a big event. As it happened, this wasn't the only news around the mash tun that day. After he let me in, co-brewer and co-owner Alan Sprints (one of only three people who make up Hair of the Dog) walked over and poured in the finishing hops to the brewery's 500th brew. (You can see him behind the cloud of steam rising off the brew kettle in the above photo if you look closely enough.) He treated the occasion casually, mentioning it in passing to assistant brewer Pat Savage. "Yeah, I didn't know if we'd have champagne or anything," he said. I looked around at the empty brewery; clearly they did not. It seemed characteristic that Hair of the Dog hadn't made much of the event: Since opening in late summer of 1994, Sprints and his partner, Doug Henderson, have let their beer make all the noise. For a brewery with only three bottled beers--two until last November--Hair of the Dog has received enormous acclaim. One of the highest honors came in 1996, when the beer and whiskey magazine Malt Advocate named Hair of the Dog's Adam as America's best domestic beer. From world-famous beer writer Michael Jackson to The Wall Street Journal to the fans from around the world who send reverential e-mails (which are posted on the brewery's Web site), it seems that everyone is in love with the beer. If you've never had a bottle, you may wonder what all the hoopla is about. In some ways, Hair of the Dog's products--Adam, Golden Rose and Fred--have more in common with fine liquors than beer. They're made with enormous amounts of malt to produce very rich, intense beers with alcohol rates ranging from 8.5 percent to 11.5 percent by volume. Unlike most American craft breweries, Hair of the Dog makes beer that will last for years, maturing like a good bottle of wine. Part of this comes from the alcohol, which acts as a preservative, but another part comes from bottle conditioning. In that process, a small amount of freshly fermenting wort is introduced at bottling time. Beers that are not bottle conditioned are subject to quick degradation, but the result of bottle conditioning is a living beer with enormous shelf life. Over a process of years, the flavor of Hair of the Dog brews will continue to change, mellowing and rounding out as they age. Take the brewery's newest bottled beer, Fred. In the three months since its introduction, I've observed a significant change. The hop bitterness, noticeable right after bottling, was dominated by the sweetness of the malt. Since then, the hops--an extraordinary 10 different varieties--have begun to dance around the edges of the malt, giving it a spicy depth. Even more remarkable, the alcohol and malt combine with the hops to give the beer a delicate quality, something I've never experienced in such a big beer. If you have the patience, buy enough to put some away to taste at intervals of months or even years. You'll be amazed at the change.
Meet Ed
It turned out that news of a new beer was true. As with the brewery's other beers, the newest dog, Ed, is not easy to categorize. But, unlike Hair of the Dog's bottled beer, it has been designed to be a quaffable pub beer, available only on tap. Looking at it in the glass, it seems innocuous and, at roughly the same body and alcohol content as Full Sail Amber or Mirror Pond, tame enough. One sip is all it takes to realize that's not so. At 65 BUs, Ed is in the range of an upper-end IPA--about twice as hoppy as most beers with a similar amount of malt. Although that's more bittering than the faint-of-heart will want, the result, coming from the same 10 varieties of hops as Fred, is a surprisingly complex, lip-smacking experience. Ed makes its public debut at the Horse Brass on Sunday, March 22, starting at noon. You may blanch when you see the price, but consider this: Though you'll spend $10 for a good cigar or $30 on a bottle of wine, three bucks will buy you one of the best bottles of beer there is. |
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