David Brockington's Tasting Notebook

Adambier

The other night over some homebrew, Craig V. noted that I haven't actually been the most prolific of reviewers lately, which reminded me of the huge pile of notes that I continually generate. In an effort to organize said notes a bit, I will once again launch into reviewing the odd beer every week or so. I hope y'all enjoy.

Initial Impressions:

Hair of the Dog is a new microbrewery in Portland, Oregon. It was founded by two well-acclaimed homebrewers, one of whom had been a nemesis of mine at a couple homebrew competitions in Oregon, beating me with frustrating consistency. Fortunately, he has turned professional. :)

Hair of the Dog is a niche brewer. They concentrate on bottle- conditioned beers. In fact, quoting from their bottle, "We are dedicated to providing the beer lover with new and unusual styles." From what I have heard, they will work on stronger styles which require some degree of maturation in the bottle in order to reach fruition. I doubt that we will see Yet Another English Ale Knockoff Overhopped With Cascades out of these guys.

If you recall, this past summer the Widmer Brewing Company was involved in a lawsuit which caused something of an outcry in the craft-beer community. The source of the suit was one of the Hair of the Dog founders allegedly breaking a "no-compete" clause in his contract with Widmer, where he had worked for six months. The suit was settled out of court. My opinion on the matter was one of incredulous disgust. Widmer, if you don't already know, concentrates on kegged product; they do not bottle. Widmer produces a line of unremarkable ales, some of which they give lager names to and claim to brew them in the traditional German style (e.g. their Oktoberfest, their Bock, etc.) While Widmer is noted for brewing one of the best Altbiers in North America, they far prefer to brew their Hefeweizen, just the sort of yuppie swill that Jon Binkley works hard at eradicating. You can probably see where I am going with this -- Hair of the Dog, brewing strong, bottle- conditioned beers, is not in competition with the megamicro Widmer, brewing innocuous beers which $ell. That Widmer would be so concerned as to sue one of the co-founders of Hair of the Dog for allegedly breaking a two year no-compete clause offers some insight into the business practices that Widmer will be following in the future. They must be of the Jim Koch School of Industry Relations.

At any rate, with the quashing of the lawsuit, I was enticed to have an opportunity to try a bottle of Hair of the Dog's first ever brew. Adambier is apparently an old Altbier style from Germany. (Two months ago, I asked in this forum if anyone had heard of it, and garnered no response. Jackson is more or less silent on the issue as well.) As such, I will not, nor can I, review this beer against a known benchmark or set of style parameters. All you Foucaultians out there can rest assured on this one -- the final score will merely represent my personal impressions of the beer itself, not how it fits any given style (which is atypical for my review methodology).

It is a very strong beer, with the green Oregon sticker on the side claiming 8% abw. The pour revealed a deep garnet beer throwing off a nice, lingering head. The beer was not opaque, however, simply beautiful. It did throw off a slight chill haze, and the expected sediment was found in the bottle.

Nose:

The first sensation I experienced in the nose was a strong, warming alcohol sensation. Under the alcohol was a pleasant maltiness, a bit of diacetyl, and some roasted notes.

Flavor:

Leading off the flavor parade was a strong, but not terribly sweet, maltiness. This was followed by the alcohol hitting the back of my throat. Roasted notes rounded out the middle of the beer, which slid into a lingering hop bitter finish. When the hop bitterness finally subsided, the alcohol warming was still present. Altogether a highly sophisticated beer; heavy-bodied and full.

Final Analysis:

I, quite simply, loved this beer. My only (minor) problem with it was the lingering hop bitterness; that seemed to detract fron a beer which seemed to want to focus on maltiness. Other than that, I can't say enough good things about it. I doubt the sales of Widmer Hefeweizen will suddenly and disastrously decline due to Hair of the Dog bottling an Adambier, however.

****1/2

Copyright 1994 by David Brockington, all rights reserved

David Brockington Seattle, USA bronyaur@u.washington.edu