Doggie Claws
Hair Of The Dog Brewing Company / Brewery And Tasting Room

12oz bottle into a teku. 2017 vintage

Looks very nice, dark reddish body with a surprisingly persistent off white head. Aromas of spice and dark fruit. Taste is a spiced bitterness with a solid sweet malt bed. Sweet and warming on the finish. A level of bitterness continues throughout. Very good beer.

2010 vintage served in a flute. Pours a lovely mahogany hue with a slight haze to the clarity and a loose, quarter inch, khaki-colored that dissipates into a soapy cluster across the center and a tight band around the shoulders. Nose reveals piney, resinous notes as well as caramel malts. Taste follows nose - hoppy with hints of oxidation added to the flavor profile. Mouthfeel is light-medium in body with a slight oiliness and the carbonation is still hanging in there. Overall, this beer has held up for the most part after 13 years. Still hoppy and resinous with a malty backbone that is not cloying. So sad this brewery is no longer around.

 

2020 vintage

We’re approaching the end of the “new” bottles I have to review from the HotD box around here. I got this one as part of a split 12 pack, with 6 vintages of this and 6 vintages of Cherry Adam From The Wood. I wanted to start off with the freshest of the 6 (despite the fact that it’s still 3 years old) but I have vintages of this dating back to 2005 that I’ll get to eventually

Pours an opaque reddish brown with just a few brown bubbles that leaves no lacing

The nose here is intriguing; it seems to display the extremes of both the bitterness and sweetness often found in the style, simultaneously. I’m picking up on aromas of leafy hops, grilled peach, burnt caramel, toffee, red grape, molasses, black tea, brown sugar, old leather, and tobacco

It doesn’t display quite the same balance in taste, leaning more into the abrasive bitterness before some mellow sweetness kicks in. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting burnt sugar, herbal hops, red grape, dark bread, orange marmalade, black tea, and pepper. The swallow brings notes of leary hops, grilled peach, molasses, brown sugar, burnt caramel, orange marmalade, and toffee

A medium body pairs with gentle tingling carbonation, resulting in a beer that is both sweet and dry. Finishes neutral with a firm lingering bitterness

I was going into this expecting a run of the mill, hop bomb American Barleywine ala Bigfoot. What I got was much more complex and interesting while still retaining some nice bitterness. Good stuff

Pours a very nice dark amber color with a slight head and lacing
Aroma has generous fruity and malt hints
The taste follows the nose with a pleasant fruity and bittersweet malt flavor
A medium bodied well carbonated beer
A great well balanced Barleywine

Doggie Claws 2014 from Hair of the Dog Brewing. Purchased on-line from the brewer. Stored at 37 degrees at home. Reviewed 16/08/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Bottle appears with only “2014” on the label, otherwise undated. Price for 12 oz bottle $ 11.24 (Including shipping) = $ 0.94/oz. Served at 57.2 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King Snifter. Final temperature 61.7 degrees.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), hazy (Bottle conditioned).
Body – Caramel, opaque. Under direct light, precipitate shows up on the inside of the glass. When rear-lite, some light penetrates at the edge, still caramel. Some sediment sloshes about the bottom of the empty bottle.
Head – None (Aggressive center pour). Initially, about 50 large bubbles which quickly burst. A few tiny bubbles align around the rim.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3.5 – Begins with a burst of dark fruit when the cap is popped; this quickly fades to no aroma. No hops, no yeast.
Flavor – 3 – Slightly sweet with malty flavors, no hops, no yeast. Some weak dark fruitiness. No ethanol (11 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. Weak upper gastric warming which slowly settles into the lower gastric tract. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 3.5 – Medium, almost creamy, barely noticeable carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 It’s an old (8 years) barleywine so some degeneration of hop flavors was expected. The maltiness remains. Unfortunately, the flavor is very one-dimensional. But it’s still good.

2009 vintage on July 14, 2023.
This beer came from the purchase noted below.
Way past its prime. It's not poison. Some might even say its drinkable. For me the worst part is the mouthfeel and aftertaste. I cannot drink the entire bottle.
A - Pours an incredibly beautiful very clear dark amber. Totally still.
S - Aroma is malty, sweet and chemical-like.
T - A heavy malty taste with brown sugar but not sweet. Some cardboard and solventy, but not hot. No hops that I can taste. Almost like there is no ABV.
MF - Medium body mouth feel with a wet cardboard coating aftertaste. Maybe like an over chewed piece of gum that has lost all of its flavor.
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But drinking a 2016 vintage right now and I believe the age has benefited this beer.
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Hair of the Dog was closing so I mailed order several bottles. This is the 2020 vintage of Doggie Claws. Poured into a small-stemmed tulip.

Definitely an American style barleywine. More bitter than sweet. A very complex beer. Not to my liking and overrated. I don’t blame age for this rather negative rating, but I do have older bottles for a comparison. 3.75

A – Pours a slightly hazy amber. Almost still. No head. A good amount of sludge/dregs at the bottom of the bottle. 3.75

S – Sweet, brown sugar, grassy, minor pepperiness, woody, no fruitiness. 4.0

T – Herbal and medicinal bitterness hits first. This was unexpected based on the spicy/herbal aroma. Woody with a hint of smoke. Almost phenolic. 3.5

MF – Medium bodied with a dry finish. I get a slight medicinal finish/almost acetone or antiseptic. Lasting finish on the palate. Thin for the high ABV. Lacking any smoothness. 3.5

Thanks to a good man that helped me with many of my hard to find/get beers, this one was a 2015 bottled date, tried in 2022. Could not create a head with this one. Pours dark like a well steeped tea. Nose very dank and almost has a tobacco soup smell. Malty, prune, currants all those come through on the nose and palate along with the high ABV. Wow what a barleywine!

 

Dark brown body from the front with a quite tall off-white-to-tan thick head with excellent retention, creating a domed top as it recedes. A back-light reveals a hazy but bright red body with ample carbonation. (The final ⅓ of the bottle poured into the glass brought the sediment to make the beer darker and cloudier.)

The aroma is earthy and fruity. I teased out molasses with deep whiffs.

The taste continues the flavors from the aroma, but in a more complex and varied way. The earthy flavors add a leathery component. The fruits are more apparent than in the aroma, and more distinct and varied as raisins, figs and plums are detectable. And what I perceived as molasses in the aroma also is more complex in the flavor: caramel, perhaps dark sugar, along with molasses. I also get some piney resin bitterness right away that intensifies though the middle and into the finish. The aftertaste is piney bitter mitigated with the earthy/leathery hops, caramel/molasses and dark fruits. Quite an interesting beer.

Apart from the quickly developing buzz, the alcohol is not apparent initially, but it does develop a definite alcohol warming as the beer itself warms.

The body is moderate, just a touch on the thicker side, sticky and smooth but with carbonation and sharp resin.

Overall, this 2021 bottling of Doggie Claws is excellent, indeed.

Poured from the 12 oz bottle, 2021 version into the test glass.
A - Bottle opened with a loud pop, carbonation is strong, a lasting off white cap resides the duration. Color is red cedar, with enought clarity to watch the busy subway station of carbonation at work.
S - Candied orange, honey, some brown sugar, fruity esters from the yeast, with a bit of pineapple, alcohol rises off the glass with each inhale.
T - Sweet grains, orange mamalde, burnt sugar, a bit of toffee, earthy piney hop, all add to the aspects from the aromatics.
M - Meium in body, with all that carbonation the texture is soft, and crisp, with a sweet start, and rapid bitter correction midway. The finish is delightfully dry.
O - A real treat here, the hop and honey use make the fresh version a fruit mainly orange experience, all the definitive Barleywine elements are in place for certain. I like the trajectory this is on, and look forward to a revisit in 2 years.

 

 

2020 vintage into a #BiL glass.

L: Slightly cloudy dark brown body under a thin cap of tight tan foam. No better than average.

S: Straightforward balance of caramel malt and grapefruit hops, with just a hint of cheesy aged hop character. Intense and completely to style.

T: Follows the nose, with some additional complexity showing up in the form of dark fruit and tobacco. Tons of flavor.

F: Thick, rich, and just carbonated enough to avoid being cloying. Pretty great.

O: Enjoyed simultaneously with bottles from 2015 and 2010. Solid American Barleywine in every way, but better at 2 years than at 7 or 12. I think I prefer young DC to young Bigfoot, but aged Bigfoot is much better in my experience.

Beers of Fame tick 214/250. Cheers!

2010 Vintage

Pours a ruby-brown with a hint of haze and fog to the translucency. Some sediment at the bottom of the bottle gives the pour floating sediment that twirls around the glass every swirl. Head is a finger of dense off-white foam after a half pour from a 12oz bottle. Aroma is piney, resiny, dank, and earthy hops that mold and meld into sweet caramel, brown sugar, fig, and molasses. Some heat rises at the back, but remains well incorporated to the point of not sticking out or throwing off the balance. Flavor profile is caramel, molasses, figs, raisins, plum, and resiny, piney, and earthy malts. Those earthy malts come on more towards the finish as they linger as the rest of the flavor profile says goodbye. It's a smooth induction of hearty old school candy malts and some sticky hops around the edges. Alcohol is not featured in the flavor profile. Mouth feel is medium-thick with a consistency neppy and fuzzy texture, akin to licking a washed sweater. Overall, between the heavy sticky, and piney hops, and the hearty malt undertones, this carries all the characteristics of an old school American barleywine. It's sticky, semi-sweet, and hearty without ever being heavy.

Served in a 15.5oz Speigalau tulip from a 12oz bottle. 2020 vintage. Consumed / reviewed 12/27/2021.

Pours opaque brown with a khaki head. Smell is led first and foremost by the barley, sweet and dry dark fruit are met by piney hops, toasted caramel, and dry earth. Taste features the barley powerfully too, prune, various dark fruits, big anise, leather, dry earth, tobacco, and finished with piney hops. Great complexity but the hops are aggressive for the style. Dry, medium bodied and has a great barley and hop snarl for the feel.

2015 vintage. Classic American barleywine. Piney, orange, Assam tea on the nose. Light vanilla, juniper, grape and jujube on the palate. Very mild carbonation.

 

poured into a snifter
2020 Vintage
Reviewed Nov 2021

A: Pours a dark copper, some amber hues when held to light, a big tan colored head builds slowly, almost in a delayed fashion like a nitro pour, interesting. Dissipates fairly slowly. Leaves some nice lacing. 4.75

S: Aroma is a great mixture of fruity esters, sweet malts, and bitter hops. I get huge apple, equally huge caramel, some bubble gum, and burnt sugar. Hits all the notes that an American Barleywine should. 4.5

T: Taste follows, is a bit more hop forward, and notably less fruity esters. Caramel is there, and burnt sugar. American hops are prominent and take center stage. It’s less balanced and less complex in the taste than the nose implies, but still quite good. 4.25

M/D: Unique combination of aggressive flavor profile yet remarkably smooth mouthfeel. Carbonation is perfect. It definitely has a whole body warming effect, but it’s not hot or overly boozy. A lingering bitterness from the hops is somewhat distracting and keeps it from being a perfect 5.0 in this category, but still mighty fine. 4.75

O: Overall, a fantastic beer. I’ve been exploring HotD beers recently after learning they can ship to my state and have tried several of their big dogs (see what I did there). Somewhat surprisingly this is probably my favorite to date, even above several of the very highly rated/regarded beers. It’s just all the things a great American Barleywine should be. I am very excited to see how this one has aged, and will be exploring older vintages soon. Great beer. 4.5