And it's not even golden!!!!??? Weird.

quote: Originally posted by myke BeerPal Notice: This topic was created for discussion of the beer <a href="../Hair-of-the-Dog-Fred-Beer/348/">Hair of the Dog Fred</a>. if this is a barleywine, how come it says "golden special ale" on the label?

The high ABV puts it in the barleywine category: wine-like levels of alcohol, yet made from barley (it's beer). The terms, "golden" and "ale" don't define style (despite their appearance on many a beer bottle), as an ale is just a class of beers made with top fermenting yeast (contrasted with "lagers," which are made with bottom fermenting yeasts). "Golden" is just a descriptive term used to describe a color, not always a specific style. All beers can be put in a lager or ale class, and barleywine is just one style of rather strong beers, which Fred fits in (as an ale, per their description of the beer). Strong ale is another consideration, but most of them (I'm not talking about Belgian Strong Ales) fall in that range of 5-8 or 9% ABV, not quite as high as a barleywine. Maybe others have more to add, but that's a starting point. Cheers!

Barleywines tend to come in a wide variety of color and hoppines. It's common to see them from dark brown to dark gold in color. Some are sweet and some are very hoppy.

quote: Originally posted by Flashpro Barleywines tend to come in a wide variety of color and hoppines. It's common to see them from dark brown to dark gold in color. Some are sweet and some are very hoppy.

right but my point was why did hotd not label it as such, and how come on the website the pic. for this beer is dark brown and not golden?

quote: Originally posted by myke right but my point was why did hotd not label it as such, and how come on the website the pic. for this beer is dark brown and not golden?

Oh, well not all beers are labelled with a style. They felt like describing it as a "golden special ale" and that's up to them. We had to list it as something so we chose barleywine as the closest match. What website do you see a pic of it that is dark brown? That BP pic is still grey and it happens to be one of the 119 beers that was not approved and waiting to be deleted. If you check out peoples' reviews you'll see that most describe it as straw or orange in color.

quote: Originally posted by Flashpro <blockquote id="quote"><table width=90% cellpadding=10><tr><td bgcolor=FFFFCC><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote: Originally posted by myke right but my point was why did hotd not label it as such, and how come on the website the pic. for this beer is dark brown and not golden?</font id="quote"></td></tr></table></blockquote id="quote">Oh, well not all beers are labelled with a style. They felt like describing it as a "golden special ale" and that's up to them. We had to list it as something so we chose barleywine as the closest match. The HOTD website. But then again, all the beers on their website are the same colour. I've seen this happen before. A brewery will skimp on some of the details of their website and picture all their bottles beside the same beer. What website do you see a pic of it that is dark brown? That BP pic is still grey and it happens to be one of the 119 beers that was not approved and waiting to be deleted. If you check out peoples' reviews you'll see that most describe it as straw or orange in color.

You miss the point-the brew is golden. It puts gold in their pockets!

I just think it's yummy.

Anybody know where I can find more recent batch numbers for this? The website only goes up to #49, and I'm trying to look up a #77. Based on the rate of batches per year, I'm guessing this is an '06?

quote: Originally posted by jlozier Anybody know where I can find more recent batch numbers for this? The website only goes up to #49, and I'm trying to look up a #77. Based on the rate of batches per year, I'm guessing this is an '06?

That's a good guess. I would say either '05 or '06.