Hair Of The Dog Fred

Hair Of The Dog Fred is an American Strong Ale. I received this as a trade extra, thanks Alex! This is Batch 83, bottled on 3.10.11, opened on 5.22.2013. So this is over 2 years old. My friend at HOTD says he prefers this fresh, and since I don’t have a fresh bottle to compare this to I will just have to review what I have here. Brewed to honor beer writer and historian Fred Eckhardt, it is made with aromatic and rye malts and includes 10 different hop varieties. This tastes more like a Belgian Strong Ale to me: sweat bready malts, strong yeast profile, candy sugar and an overall fruitiness (a bit of banana and some peaches maybe?). A bit of rye and hop spice is hanging on to combat the sweetness. A big amount of carbonation is adding a good bit of tingle to the mouth-feel. I will look forward to trying this fresh someday, but it was very good with a couple of years on it.