Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws Barley Wine Style Ale

I received a bottle of Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws Barley Wine Style Ale from Doug Hanson. The beer pours a raisin-amber color with a lofty, frothy, and creamy thick beige colored head. Some lacing is left on the glass, and the yeast flakes are abundant and float in the beer. The aroma consists of raisins, honey, pine hops, caramel, and fig. The taste is smooth and nicely sweet with caramel, fig, raisin, date, and some molasses. Balancing the sweetness is a nice spicy pine hop flavor with a hint of an alcohol burn. The finish brings out some honey and just the touch of sweetness the beer needs to finish. The alcohol content is 11.0% ABV. This is one of the better barleywines that I have ever had with a great sweetness. I feel that the honey really made the beer, as it wasn’t too raisin-y and just sweet enough.