Hair of the Dog Ruth (ORE)

Now you're messing with a sonovabitch. Oregon's Hair of the Dog must be viewed as one of the quintessential  American boutique microbreweries. Well, boutique might not be the right word, but they make only a handful of beers, mostly big alcohol, not huge batches. Ratebeerians drool over things like the 29% ABV Dave with its super-selective release. 

Ruth is only 4.5% ABV and predictably not as highly rated. An American Pale Ale, it claims, but it's also unfiltered and not at all in the Sierra Nevada style. It looks like a hefeweizen and tastes like fresh grapefruit juice. Seriously, drinking this blind I'd probably guess carbonated grapefruit juice as easily as beer. It's good: not bitter canned grapefruit juice, or pith or rind. It's more fruity and a bit floral. Not a lot of hop sharpness for a West Coast pale, nor a bready malt backbone, just some combination of Crytsal hops, light grains and yeast. 

It's unusual and refreshing, I think, but a little too pricey on this side of the country to be properly drunk as a warm-weather session ale. Still, I'm sure I'll drink this again.

Hair of the Dog Adam (ORE)

I don't know if this was ever available in my area before, but all of a sudden I saw Adam, Fred and Ruth at my local beer shop. The former two are darlings of the BA/RB crowd. Adam is a free interpretation of an old Dortmunder ale style. In his Great Beer Guide, Michael Jackson relates a tale of William IV of Prussia being knocked out for a day after drinking a tankard of adambier. HoD Adam is 10%, but I'm still on my feet after one bottle.

The brewer's website says "it is great with chocolate or cigars," but I like to drink at least one bottle by itself. Besides, I don't smoke cigars ; wouldn't that undercut the beer? Anyway, Adam is a very dark brown beer, beige head, thick on the tongue, with an aroma of roasty malts and hops. The taste is "complex": chocolate, figs, light roastiness, a touch of earthy smokiness, and a shot of citrus rind hops. A lot going on, to be sure. It reminded me most of Jewbelation 11, but that's a crude comparison, and for most people, a backwards one at that.

My bottle was the recent Batch 72 (the latest batch?). I think I would have preferred an older sample to mellow the hops a bit. Still, this is a taste bomb, easily recommended for those who like that sort of thing.