Who Let the Dogs Out

Hair of the Dog‘s big dog Alan Sprints made a special appearance at the Green Dragon in Portland to the delight of 1st Gen beer dorks and whippersnapper hophead hipsters. The highly anticipated annual favorite Doggie Claws ’09 coined the arrival of this year’s big winter brews. In a quasi-momentus speech, Sprints nonchalantly claimed the event was his first personal tasting of this year’s batch. Also available at this HOTD festivity was Cherry Adam from the Wood and Blue Dot IPA. The only downer of the batch, a low alcohol and chlorine-esque Ruth was unleashed. We witnessed a few of these being sent back to the bar, but the plush and dark fruity wooded Adam and 11.5% floral and resinous barleywine seemed to override any insignificance.

The Dragon was a wrought with congregating beer geeks making their way out of the wood work to work the wood beer and the emboldened pioneers. Sprints appeared as relaxed as he did confident. And why not, his beer is one that helped to shake up many of our perceptions of what a muscular yet eloquent beer could be. You can experience more of Hair of the Dog’s groundbreaking recipes at the November 14 Anniversary Sale at the obscure yet be-leagered brewery in Southeast Portland. Get there early. Perhaps even stake camp the night prior. Prost!