Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu is a 10% old world ale that is a collaborative release from Shiga Kogen x Hair of The Dog and comes out in January annually. What is an old world ale? Well this one is based on an old German recipe from Dortmund and uses smoked malt and peated barrels imported from the US. Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog is on sale for a limited supply with only 1800 bottles released each time across Japan so it’s a blink and miss it beer. It can be found in bottles and on the rarest of occasions, on tap as well.
This is the Japanese label of the beer. The US label features a dog on the label.
Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu Aroma and Taste
I’ve missed out on Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu a couple of times now – the year it was first released when I couldn’t find it for love nor money, and this year when I missed out on the Shiga Kogen New Year lucky bag, or fukubukuro as it’s called. When I saw that it had been released in 2016, I rushed to Shinshu Osake Mura, which has now become THE place to get Nagano craft beer outside of Nagano it seems. I picked up a few bottles with the hope of aging some of them as well.
Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu poured out a thick brown with a syrup-like pour to it. It had a hazy quality to it as well and it was possible to see what was floating around. I had heard worrying things about the 2015 edition with it being too sugary sweet and a mess but it seemed that those flavours had mellowed out with a peaty smoke-filled aroma coming through along with some plums and raisins too. There was some sweetness to it that reminded me of toffee and caramel.
The body though was far more robust than the aroma let on to be. As it had been chilled, I did let this warm up before drinking (for those curious I had a Shiga Kogen No 10 Anniversary, one of the best IPAs in Japan at the moment) and was grateful for letting it warm up. The peaty smoke aromas were present in the body and had a distinct bitterness to that I wasn’t expecting due to the sweetness and high alcohol content coming through. However, the booziness was present in the aftertaste and left some weird syrup-like coating on my tongue afterwards.
Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu One Line Review
I wanted to like Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu and I do but it still feels like it could do with some aging.
Where to Buy Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu
Shiga Kogen / Hair of The Dog Adamu can be bought online at the following places:
