Hoppin' Frog Hop Heathen

I received a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog Hop Heathen from Cleveland Food and Brews in a beer trade. The beer pours a black color with a thin frothy tan colored head that leaves a little bit of a lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of chocolate, dank, coffee, lemon, caramel, wood, tobacco sweetness, grapefruit, and maple syrup. Honestly, this is one of the best smelling beers I’ve ever had. The taste is smooth at first with some chocolate and caramel but bitters rather quickly with lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, and pepper. A touch of tobacco comes out in the finish with some woody and toasted malt flavors. The alcohol content is 8.8% ABV. I will say that I was more impressed with the aroma than the flavor, but that shouldn’t take anything away from the flavor. I was taken aghast by the aroma and would smell this all day. The taste took me on a rollercoaster ride of flavors and was a really well put together beer.

Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout Batch #100

Heather Holmes picked me up a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout Batch #100 from the brewery. The beer pours a black color with a frothy brown head that lingers for a while. The aroma consists of bitter and burnt malts, chocolate, oak, and vanilla. The taste is more dry than sweet dark chocolate, toasted and slightly burnt malts, and hints of coffee. Some vanilla brings out a sweetness before oak dries out the mouth and mocha can take over. The alcohol content is 9.4% ABV. Although I didn’t do a side-by-side with the original beer, I believe this was a little more bitter and had much more of a roasted flavor about it. That being said, it was still wonderful and had great chocolate and coffee flavors.

Hoppin' Frog Frosted Frog's Christmas Barrel Aged Christmas Ale

I was fortunate enough to have Heather Holmes pick me up a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog Frosted Frog’s Christmas Barrel Aged Christmas Ale from the brewery. I previously had the non-barrel aged beer, and was excited to try this one. The beer pours a dark amber color with a thin filmy off-white colored head. The aroma consists of cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, allspice, vanilla, and bourbon. The taste is spicy and has plenty of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice on the front end. However, in comparison to the non-barrel aged version of this beer, the bourbon and vanilla sweetens and rounds out the flavor in the finish. The alcohol content is 8.6% ABV. While I didn’t hate the non-barrel aged version, this version was infinitely better, as the bourbon barrel aging smoothed out the spiciness, especially in the finish. The alcohol warmth added a true touch of Christmas, exactly what was missing from the beer before.

Hoppin' Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale

I bought a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale from Al’s of Hampden and brought it over to my buddy’s Adam’s place to share with friends. The beer pours a red-tinted amber color with a thin bubbly off-white colored head. The aroma is big on cinnamon and ginger with hints of nutmeg and pepper. The taste is dry with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a hint of sugar. A solid caramel base announces itself before a before a ginger spice kicks in and bitters the palate. The alcohol content is 8.6% ABV. I thought this was a rather good spiced beer that was very dry. For those that don’t like spice-heavy beer, this may not be for you, but I loved how it tasted very similar to gingerbread cookies.

Hoppin' Frog Frog's Hollow Pumpkin Ale

While at Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh, I picked up a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog Frog’s Hollow Pumpkin Ale. The beer pours an orange-amber color with a frothy cream colored head that fades rather rapidly. The aroma consists of sweet pumpkin, dry cinnamon, nutmeg, a hint of allspice, and cream. The taste is smooth and sweet at first with plenty pumpkin up front before some dryness comes in to play with cinnamon and nutmeg. There is an allspice finish before some caramel sweetens up the finish. The alcohol content is 8.4% ABV. The spices in this beer are present, but are mostly used to balance out the sweetness of the pumpkin. There is plenty of pumpkin flavor in this beer, and it was much appreciated.

Hoppin' Frog Turbo Shandy

My buddy Matt bought a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog Turbo Shandy for his sister at the beach and she allowed me to try some. The beer pours a cloudy yellow-gold color with no head. The aroma consists of passion fruit, pineapple, lemon, grapefruit. The taste is sweet with lemon, passion fruit, canned fruit mix, pineapple, and sugar. There is a slightly dry finish with lots of bubbles on the tongue. The alcohol content is 7.0% ABV. I would say that I like this beer better than Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy. I’m making this comparison because the Summer Shandy is the only other shandy I’ve had. While it is on the fruity side, it was a refreshing beverage and enjoyable.

Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S. Barrel Aged Oatmeal Imperial Stout

I finally gave in to my inhibition to buy a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog B.O.R.I.S. Barrel Aged Oatmeal Imperial Stout from Al’s of Hampden. The beer pours a thick black color with a lofty and frothy bubbly tan head. The aroma consists of whiskey, peat, chocolate, lots of coffee, espresso, vanilla, licorice, and oak. The taste is dry and biting with the whiskey coming on the front end of the beer. After the whiskey punch is finished, the flavor sweetens with vanilla, chocolate, and licorice. The finish dries out a little bit with some coffee and espresso, and the after taste leaves some oak remnants. The alcohol content is 9.4% ABV. This was a wonderfully smooth beer despite the sharp whiskey bite that accompanies the beer. I enjoyed the boat load of flavors, from coffee to chocolate, all accented nicely with a touch of vanilla.

Hoppin' Frog D.O.R.I.S. The Destroyer Double Imperial Stout

My buddy Matt brought over a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog D.O.R.I.S. The Destroyer Double Imperial Stout. The beer pours a thick dark color with a thin tan head. The aroma consists of chocolate, milk, toasted malts, caramel, and vanilla. The taste is smooth and milk-chocolaty with a good base of toasted malts and vanilla, and caramel accents. There is a dry dark chocolate after taste with hints of molasses. The alcohol content is 10.5% ABV. I was surprised as to how smooth drinking this beer was without the slightest hint of alcohol, despite the high content. It has a wonderful sweetness with just enough dry chocolate bite to keep you thirsty and drinking more.

Hoppin' Frog Hop Dam Triple IPA

I picked up a bottle of Hoppin’ Frog Hop Dam Triple IPA from Al’s of Hampden. The beer pours a an orange-amber color with yeast flakes that float with a frothy off-white colored head that leaves laving on the glass. The aroma is grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, caramel, pine, and spruce. The taste is intense and both bitter and sweet at the same time with a bold toasted caramel base. There is a bitter hop accent that brings out tangerine, grapefruit, pine, and spruce hops. There is a slight sugary sweetness on the finish and then the hop oils linger, drying out the mouth. The alcohol content is 10.0% ABV. This was a wonderfully hoppy beer with lots of oil and bitterness about it with a great caramel base and plenty of citrus flavors.