Alan has never sold a lot of beer, but his influence has been unmistakable. He’s like the Velvet Underground of the brewing world–only 30,000 people tasted his beer in those early years, but they all went on to found their own breweries.
— Jeff Alworth (2013)
The expression comes from Brit-Speak for Drinkers: “A hair of the dog that bit you.” It actually refers to an archaic and (obviously) discredited practice of treating a rabid dog bite with hair from the biting dog, leading to the creative human conclusion that getting drunk all over again is the best cure for a hangover.
I’m unwilling to take a definitive position on any of this, so let’s consider the Hair of the Dog as “craft” beer lovers know it, which is an epochal brewery located in Portland, Oregon. The maker of Adam, Fred, Ruth and Michael was founded by Alan Sprints in 1993, and as we learned earlier this week, it will be ending in 2022.
Sprints published a video revealing his decision to retire.
As noted in this space last November, the 62-year-old Sprints was in a ruminative mood about his future during an episode of the Drink Beer, Think Beer podcast with John Holl.
At first he’d always assumed his children would carry the legacy forward; now they have their own lives outside of beer and aren’t interested. Sprints decided to neither clutch the mash paddle until death nor sell the business and hope for the best; he’ll be gradually dissolving it while he’s still somewhat ahead, and can enjoy a satisfied retirement. I’m happy for him; what a legacy.
Beervana’s Jeff Alworth gets us up to speed on Hair of the Dog’s back story.
Hair of the Dog was remarkably influential—especially given that it was always a pocket-sized brewery. Alan’s vision was decades ahead of a market that finally started catching up to him in the mid-teens. He was inspired by intense, potent beers, particularly those of Belgium. When he founded the brewery, the best-selling beers were amber and wheat ales half the strength of Alan’s four-letter flagships, Adam and Fred. They were so far outside the ken of the beer world that retailers and distributors didn’t know what to do with them. But to a certain group of fans, these beers were why craft beer existed.
Beers like Hair of the Dog’s also were the impetus for Gravity Head at the New Albanian Pizzeria & Public House. Concurrently with Sprints’ decision to retire, NABC has said yes, Gravity Head will resume this year after being pre-empted by the pandemic in 2021 (the 2020 festival began like always but ended prematurely).
(Full disclosure: The period of Gravity Head’s mightiest cultural hegemony coincided with my period of co-ownership at NABC; the buyout was official in 2018. I take credit for my share of the intellectual property, but hasten to acknowledge that Gravity Head always took a village to pull off, and still does.)
2022 marks the 23rd edition of Gravity Head dating to 1999, and it is disorienting for me to contemplate that the bacchanal has now taken place over four different decades.
From Gravity’s Head’s inception, the listed beers haven’t ever been served all at once. They’re strong beers priced by the small pour, and as kegs deplete, others are tapped until the beers all disappear.
The idea is that for a week or three, NABC’s customers can taste a few of the beers, then come back another time and taste a few more. Because flights imply a vague “right” to taste all the listed beers, they aren’t offered. There’ll inevitably be a quiet Tuesday night on the second or third week, with a handful of friends, and leisurely, contemplative sipping of one or two quality strong ales or lagers, spiced with conversation and laughter. These are the precious moments that lead to feelings of timelessness, and without timelessness, beer is far less interesting to me.
If you chose to attend, be responsible and arrange your transportation back home. Gravity Head begins on Friday morning, February 25 at 8:00 a.m. NABC is located at 3312 Plaza Drive in New Albany.
