Hair of the Dog Cherry Adam from the Wood

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Pours opaque mahogany with minimal ivory head. Aroma features dark fruit, caramel and toasted malt notes. Flavor offers sweet toasted malt, caramel and dark fruit notes. Texture presents good body and lively fizz. Bark bark!

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

12 oz bottle, dated 2014. Pours dark brown with no real carbonation.

The aroma is bourbon chocolate cherries.

The flavor is sweet malts, strong bourbon alcohol, dark fruits, roast chocolate and slightly tart cherry. There's a little harsh alcohol in the finish. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with no carbonation.

Overall, a nice decedent beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bottle(s) at Hair of the Dog. Shared with FlashPro (aka Captain Kirk, fearless leader), PfoxyJohn, Phishpond and USCGamecockFriendofFlash. Had both the 2009 and the 2011 versions, 2011 being my favorite, I'll review that: deep ruby black pour, flat as a board, little head, just a ringlet, no lacing. Pronounced sweet cherry aroma and flavor as it warms, Bourbon, vanilla, caramel, just a wee hint of smoke, oak. Bloody great! So so so glad to try this and to meet up with Brian and crew. BeerPal rocks! Booyah!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

2012 bottle: Long time wish list item, almost white whale status. Am while I enjoyed it quite a bit, it was not as good as Michael or Flanders Fred. Very tannic. Dark pour, nearly flat. Not al lot of cherry per se, but very winey and oakey, leathery. The cherry actually took away some complexity from Adam and the superb adam from the wood. Glad to have tried this.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Adam's trademark leather, roast, wood, vanilla, and fruity backbone that quickly follows up with a thick tart cherry quality. Complex with a lot of deep flavors. A mottled brown pour with a thin head and mild lacing. Smooth and very well rounded, exceptional mouth feel. Extremely well crafted.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

12 oz bottle -

Aroma - the wood dominated the nose and was quite an example to show someone what the effect of barrel aging has on beer. Subtle cherry aroma, light toasted bread, molasses and toffee with some vanilla/whiskey really struggling to come out.

Appearance - beautiful cherrywood brownish/purple-red body with a scant 1/4" off-white head.

Tatste - the cherry/whiskey/wood combo was quite pleasing, the suprise of finding an actual cherry in the beer was kinda cool. Alcohol was present, and it did kinda remind me of someone dumping a shot of whiskey into my beer, but it was still enjoyable.

Palate - smooth on the palate, slighty hot from the alcohol, carbonation with this was extremely low

Overall - I would definitely take the non-barrel Adam ANY day of the week. This was a nice change of pace, but Adam is such a phenom beer that this seems to knock it down a notch or so.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 10 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

2009 bottle from brewolf. Thanks Michael. This pours a still dark brown color with some amber sneaking through and just a few lonely bubbles on top. Huge bourbon, wood, dark fruit, licorice, cherry aroma. Nice... I could smell this for a while. Incredibly smooth flavors. No alcohol heat at all. Soft bourbon and oak flavors are strong and mix really well with plums, cherries, and leather. A slight tart in the finish. Warms the body up. The cherry just adds complexity, per the bottle description, and is certainly complementary rather than being the biggest flavor. Really awesome stuff. Like Angels Share... under carbonated but smooth, complex, and tasty as hell.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Sampled March 2009
A careful, but solid pour into my large Tripel Karmeliet tulip glass produces a frothy, half-finger thick, fairly quickly disappearing, lightly browned, dark tan colored head. The beer is quite dark, with a concentrated brown, approaching black color, when held up to the light beer shows some flashes of ruby, but is mostly opaque in its darkness. The aroma smells of spicy Bourbon, but has an earthy malt character to it that moves into a rich note in the finish that is a bit like prunes or perhaps even some sherry like notes. There is enough noticeable alcohol in the nose that it warms my nose upon a deep draught of the aroma. The malt character here is pretty complex, though in some ways subtle; toasted malt notes, spicy grain, a hint of salty smokiness, something a bit like carbonized fruit (though without the acrid notes, or even the burnt char character). There is some woody oak character here, as well as some spicy barrel character, soft vanillin notes and even a touch of toasted coconut; overall the barrel notes are pretty well integrated and don't overwhelm the rest of the aromatic notes. I definitely don't smell any cherry like notes here though.

This beer is lightly sweet, though it has more of a rich maltiness than actual sweetness. The beer finishes with a peat derived, salty, earthy smokiness that lingers on in the finish along with a sherry'd prune character (prune without much sweetness though). This is only lightly carbonated; it has just a prickle of carbonation as it rolls across the tongue. The beer isn't overly viscous, though it certainly has some body to it, and it has a certain soft creamy texture to it. Behind the smokiness in the finish are some dark malt notes that suggest hints of tar, a bit of roasted coffee notes and a rich roasted caramel note (not burnt, but rich with lots of Maillard browning flavors). This definitely has a spiciness from the barrel aging process and the alcohol also provides a bit of heat. There is a touch of tartness to the finish; is this where the otherwise absent cherry character comes in?

I am not quite too sure about the cherry part of this beer, there is a general fruity richness, but certainly not anything I can identify as cherry specific. This could use a bit more texture and heft, a bit more residual malt character in the body would help to smooth out the warm / boozy alcohol and spicy barrel notes. Seems to lack a bit of finesse and the flavors / aromas are not quite as integrates as one might hope. Still this is certainly a tasty beer and I like how the background sherry notes add a lot of richness to this beer. The smoky peat character also adds a lot of background complexity to this beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bottle: Poured a deep black color ale with some reddish notes and alight foamy head with minimal retention and no lacing. Aroma of bourbon and light cherry with a well rounded malt backbone. Taste is very complex mix of bourbon, cherries, smoke and tar with a heavy dose of sweet malt. Full body with limited filtration and no carbonation and almost no carbonation. Very complex and very satisfying – another great beer coming from a very creative brewer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Sampled on 12/5/08. A big thanks to WeeHeavySD for sharing this one at the 2008 San Diego Strong Ale Fest. The traditional Ale pours a dark black color from a 12oz bottle. Small sized white foamy head. The aroma is cherry, malts, dark fruits and oak. A medium bodied ale. The malts are caramel and sweet. The hops are floral. The cheery flavor is sort of subtle, but very intense and focused. Nice smooth finish. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.