Hair of the Dog Brewing Company’s Adam
Aging beers is a difficult venture: you find a beer you want to drink, you purchase it, bring it home from the store, and bide your time until the perfect moment comes to enjoy it. Every day that bottle sits in your fridge or your cellar, you’re haunted and mocked by its presence, much like the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” being taunted by the body he hid under his floorboards. This is why cellaring beers is often a losing battle. But there’s a reason people opt to age higher gravity beers like stouts and barleywines; because beer is always changing and developing, there’s almost no telling how a beer will evolve over time. The high alcohol burn may cool down, hop flavors will decrease, and other flavors may become more prominent. It’s always a gamble, but if you’re patient enough and have the resources, aging beers is a fun game to play. However, sometimes we don’t even have to tease ourselves with the pain of holding onto a beer for so long as, occasionally, such hidden treasures are aged for us.
After moving, my friends Seth and Jamie were clearing out their own beer cellar at their old house, luckily with my brother’s help. After grabbing everything they needed, my brother was rewarded with Hair of the Dog Brewing Company’s Adam. Because it’s currently only under extremely limited distribution in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania area according to SeekABrew.com, I’ve only seen their beers once or twice in stores. Instead I’ve relied on recommendations and tales from my buddy Dan in Seattle about their beers. This is why after receiving a call from my brother informing me that he had in his possession a bottle of Adam and knowing the collection Seth and Jamie held, I was immediately excited.
The bottle itself is from Batch 76. Curious as to just how old this bottle was, we did some research and were fortunate enough to find the “Adam Vintage Guide” listed on Hair of the Dog’s website. We were psyched to discover that the bottle of Adam we had in our fridge was brewed on April 21, 2009 and bottled on May 21, 2009. Figuring that it’s fifth birthday was good enough reason to celebrate, we grabbed some glasses, popped it open, and were amazed at the beer we found.
Adam poured an extremely dark plum color that showed a bit of crimson in the light. There was absolutely no head, just some bubbles rising to the top in part due to a rigorous pour. As I peaked my nose into the glass, I immediately found maple syrup, lots of figs and prunes, a pinch of alcohol, and an alluring touch savory smoke. After five years, this beer drank incredibly; it was super smooth even with some sweet, peppery spice. The mouth had plenty of dark fruit (figs, prunes, and dates) and chocolate while the aftertaste was heavy on smoke after a cocoa powder finish. The savory smoke and chocolate were a great mix, reminiscent of melting chocolate over a campfire. Adam is certainly on the thicker side, especially at 10% ABV, but its just such a smooth and complex beer after all of these years.
Being that this was my first foray into Adam and Hair of the Dog’s beers, I’m hoping it’s not long before I run into them again. Since I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a relatively old vintage of this, it’s pretty much my mission to get my hands on a younger bottle so that I can compare my notes. Likewise, I noticed on the Adam Vintage Guide that this recipe was first brewed and bottled way back in 1994, which has me wondering what one of those would taste like 20 years later. If you’ve had any of the other vintages or Adam, either older or younger, I’d love to hear about your experience, so please feel free to share it.
Overall Rating: 9.7/10
Cheers.
Brave Brew World 