Beer Review: D.O.R.I.S. The Destroyer by Hoppin' Frog

Once again, thank you to my mother who picks Hoppin' Frog up from the brewery.  You would be a momma's  boy too if your mom stocked your fridge with craft beer.  It was leftover from Christmas, but I kept it cold and brought it back to Chicago to keep me warm.

Tasting Notes:
This double imperial stout poured black with the consistency of motor oil.  A nervous sniff revealed aromas of hops, chocolate and coffee coming from a very thin deep brown head.  With almost no carbonation it still had a full mouthfeel covering the tongue with the same coffee, chocolate and hops as the nose.  At 10.5% ABV this beer lets you know who is the boss and the intense flavor makes sure you can  handle only one bottle of this.  To be honest, I am not sure my taste buds recovered the next morning.

A Northeast Ohio Christmas

I went home to visit family at Thanksgiving, and the Flossmoor Pullman Brown I took was a big hit.  Thanks to my Mom I sat down with my Dad and brothers and we sampled several other beers side by side.  We had four beers that day.  Now I know you all assume Great Lakes Brewing Company's Christmas Ale was on the list, and it was, but we also sampled a 2009 bottle aged Hoppin' Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale, a 2010 Frosted Frog, and 12 Dog Days of Christmas from Thirsty Dog.  Here are my notes from this side by side tasting:




Great Lakes Christmas Ale:
Pours a copper color with a one finger head.  A strong malt nose with hints of spice.  Tastes similar to a gingerbread cookie with a side of honey.  Moderately carbonated and very drinkable.  Although weighing in at 7.5% ABV this is the lowest alcohol beer of the day.












Hoppin' Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale (2010):

Brewery Fresh

Purchased from the brewery and kept refrigerated as suggested on the bottle label.  The 2010 poured a cider color with a slight head releasing a strong cinnamon aroma.  This beer also has a ginger cookie taste, but also a great deal of nutmeg and cinnamon with a slightly lingering aftertaste.  Frosted Frog only has 12 IBUs meaning almost no hop presence requiring the flavors to be driven by the added spices.  The flavor in this beer is much bolder than the Great Lakes almost as if it was concentrated somehow.  At 8.6%, although drinkable, a few of these will probably put you under the table.

Hoppin' Frog Frosted Frog Christmas Ale (2009):

Aged Frosted Frog

This bottle was purchased direct from the brewery in 2010.  I am operating under the assumption that it was properly aged at their facility.  The 2009 poured with no head and much darker than the cider colored non-aged Frosted Frog.  There was no cinnamon smell, but a much stronger ginger presence in the aroma.  It went down very smooth with a bite, with a strong cinnamon flavor.  The aftertaste here lingered much longer than 2010 bottle.

12 Dog Days of Christmas by Thirsty Dog:
This beer poured an amber color with a light head.  The nose had malt, but a very weak aroma.  The flavors you expect to be there, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger were non-existent.  This was a very malty beer, but unfortunately did not match in flavor to the other beers on the table.

The Winner:
To be honest I went into this tasting with a front runner in my mind and I was personally surprised at the results.  I was the only one, of the tasting group, who cared for the 2009 Frosted Frog.  It had a definite aged taste to it that a less sophisticated drinker will probably not enjoy.  My brothers were huge fans of the Great Lakes Christmas Ale while my Dad and I preferred the Frosted Frog.  I had Bro and her wife try Great Lakes and Frosted Frog side by side and they split on preference.  I think if your a big fan of bold flavors then Frosted Frog is the winner with Great Lakes a close second.

Update:  My cousin, who has been known to buy Great Lakes Christmas Ale by the case, preferred the Frosted Frog.  He agreed the Frosted Frog had a bolder flavor than Great Lakes.

Also, we had one Frosted Frog left from Thanksgiving, and my mother picked up several new bottles from the brewery a week before Christmas.  Dad and I poured the old bottle first.  Even though it was kept refrigerated we both thought the flavor was not as bold as we remembered and it reminded us of the aged version we previously tried.  We followed that up with a fresh bottle and it matched our recollections exactly.  Either we somehow got a bad bottle or Frosted Frog ages quickly.  I hesitate to use the word deteriorate, but it is clearly not the same beer it was just a month prior.  This confirms my suspicion that freshness is extremely important when it comes to Hoppin' Frog.

Frog's Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale by Hoppin' Frog

I despise sharing pumpkin beers.

Hoppin' Frog won a Gold Medal at the 2010 GABF in the Field Category with Frog's Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale.  This is the second Great American Beer Festival Gold medal winner in three years for this young brewery.  Pumpkin is a fast growing segment of the beer industry, and Hoppin' Frog's ability to land a gold shows that the brewer is no slouch.

Tasting Notes:
When poured from the bottle it produces a nice white head and a dark amber color with a nice amount of bubbles. The head produced a spicy aroma with nutmeg and clove standing out above the pumpkin.  A very light pumpkin flavor was dominated by pumpkin pie spices.  The beer lacks the bread flavors found in most pumpkin beer, but this is not a bad thing.  Overall the beer reminds me more of pumpkin pie filling than the whole pie.  A fizzy mouthfeel that creates a bit of a bite.  As the GABF medal attests this is a beer worth having.

Mean Manalishi by Hoppin' Frog Brewery

Yes I had to share :(

Mean Manalishi by Hoppin' Frog is a Double IPA weighing in at an "alleged" whopping 168 IBUs.  I say "alleged" only because a number of people argue that the International Bitterness Unit Scale can not realistically exceed 100 units.  However, IBUs shall be discussed another time.

Tasting Notes:
Poured slightly orange with a one finger head.  The nose had a sweet smell with a slight hint of pine and citrus.  An  earthy and grassy taste up front and back with a very strong hop presence.  The initial taste makes you think you grabbed a barleywine by mistake.  Medium bodied and moderately carbonated a beer that goes down, but not one you can drink over and over.  Beers like Mean Manalishi and Ruination IPA have such high IBUs that your palate can only sustain one beer in an evening.  I am not saying this is a bad beer, in fact I think it is excellent, just not as a session beer.

Bodacious Black & Tan from Hoppin' Frog Brewery

Bodacious Black & Tan by Hoppin' Frog Brewery of Akron, Ohio takes a draft treat and puts it in a bottle.  Typically requesting a black and tan results in Guinness Stout poured on top of Harp Lager.  However, over the years many local brews have taken the combination of a stout and lager and made it their own.  Bodacious is a bit different because Hoppin' Frog did not follow the typical pattern of stout over lager.  In  Bodacious the brewers took the brewery's GABF gold medal winning B.O.R.I.S the Crusher (Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout) and blended it with their Hoppin' To Heaven IPA.  The use of an oatmeal stout and IPA bucks the usual decision of using an Irish Dry Stout and Lager.  This creates a beer with 65 IBUs, much higher than a typical black and tan.  If you are a fan of the layering effect created by a draft version of the black and tan, you are not going to get that in a bottle.  The two beers are throughly mixed together which means there is no beginning and no end to each beer.

Tasting Notes:
Pours a dark chocolate color and lacks the color definition in typical black and tan.  A medium bodied tan head forms from the pour.  Aromas of chocolate and, more unusual for the style, hops come to the nose.  A medium bodied, moderately carbonated beer with flavors of roasted coffee, chocolate, molasses and citrus.  The 2/3 IPA and 1/3 stout come out perfectly resulting in a very balanced beer.  Definitely a beer I would drink again.