Hoppin Frog BORIS The Crusher

Brewed by Hoppin Frog Brewery
Style: Imperial Stout
Akron, Ohio USA

Serve in Snifter

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UPDATED: FEB 10, 2007 Impenetrable black. Small bubbles rise at a medium pace to form a well-packed, but lilting, khaki head. Inky, blackcurrant aromas and pronounced toasted oats kissed with tar, chocolate truffles, and sprucelike hop whispers. Smells fairly gassy. Clean, peppery alcohol invigorates the senses. Loose carbonation deposits a foamy residue as it rolls around the palate. Deceptively viscous with a satiny soft body. Intensely vinous, upfront, with a metallic zing of acidity accentuating a decadent fusion of espresso-charged blackcurrants and ink-soaked plums. Juicy explosion of bittersweet chocolate complements the dry char and bitter espresso, and augments the understated but pungently earthy roastiness. Well-extracted roasted barley crackles in the wake of the immense maltiness, but overshadows a large portion of the malt sweetness with its profound softness. Alcohol is clean and well-masked, but imparts a wallop of essential warmth which beautifully aids the liquefied tar and oily/richly nutty java effect. Dainty nuttiness lends bounce to the crisply defined char and roast. Black malt astringency yields a crunchy burnt cookie and ashen dryness which is slightly offset by a slippery and dense underbelly of inky fruitiness. Finishes brightly fruity and zingy, but the grains become somewhat flabby while a concentrated richness of oily java saturates and films the palate. Solid, overall, but the aroma, despite being pleasingly vinous, is underwhelming (simplistic and overly tame). Loose carbonation also hinders/shortens the malt depth. Not that this beer isn’t the work of a gifted brewer, but it certainly proves that it takes much more than a complicated grain bill to achieve complexity. Some minor adjustments would transform this into a ravishing beauty. Thanks for the generous surprise, kujo!

Bottle picked up at Consumer’s Beverages in Niagara Falls. Pours a dark/ opaque brown/ black colour with a pretty big bubbly dark tan head with full walls of lacing. Smells like some coffee and milk chocolate like malt, quite sweet. Tastes rather sweet, with chocolate and some coffee bitter and malt. Really smooth.

Tap @ beer temple. Pour pitch black, with a small, creamy, thick mocha brown head. Aroma is packed of coffee, chocolate, oatmeal, caramel, roasted malts. Taste is sweet up front, with a rather long and bitter aftertaste. Full bodied, with a semi-flat carbonation.

Color, black with brown chocolate milky head. Nose, milk chocolate, pear, cherries, dark chocolate, fudge, green apples. Taste, dark chocolate, coffee, pear, toffee, rasberries, licorice, green/red apples. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Aroma of chocolate, oatmeal, coffee, malts, more alcoholic as it warms. Pours black with thin mahogany head some lace. Taste chocolate, brown sugar, coffee, sweet malts, very complex. full body, slight bitterness. thick and dry on palate. slight bitter coffee, alcoholic finish. fantastic imperial!

Pours pitch black with a medium tan head. Aroma is roasted malts and coffee. Flavor is roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and hops. Exquisite.

15 cl. draft tasting glass @ Delirum Hoppy Loft // black but not the blackest of black, little tanned head // smell is cocoa (main), light liquorice, some toffee, chocolate, smooth dark fruits, touch integrated roasted malts with a certain dash of vanilla // taste is cocoa, plenty of mocha, coffee, sweet upfront with some smooth integrated dark fruits, going into a roasted (smooth) and reasonably lasting bitter finish, touch hops & hop bitterness in the finish // smooth touch oat body // light body // solid but not a high flier within the style // apparently in the states the price point of this is very sweet

The Beer Pipeline strikes again!! Thanks Tony, I had been meaning to track this one down for some time. Pours a ruthless and opaque brown-black into my Minneapolis Town Hall glass, thin very dark tan head, spotty to poor lacing. Nose is very oaty, which is something I like, and quite sweet... Reminds ne a bit of homemade chocolate pudding in terms of aroma, lots of easy to pick out mocha notes here too. Very accessible and soft nose, while still expansive and complex... Flavours are moderately sweet, with soft carbonation and lots of oats, red licorice, and fudge. Big black forest cake in the midpalate... Big, decadent, soft, and dessert-like without being aggressively sweet or boozy. Great stuff!

Wow! Black as used engine oil, and about as viscous. Strikingly similar to FBS, just a little boozier. Roasty and bitter but smells like a bowl full of oatmeal. Delicious!

On tap at Beer Temple. Black, brown head. Aroma of coffee, hard roasted malts, chocolate, laurel, liquorice, moccha, sweet. Flavour is sweet, hard roasted malts, hops, chocolate, moccha, laurel, sweet and hard roasted bitter finish. Medium to full-bodied, soft carbonation. Had some Yeti-qualities imo. Good.

Draught@Viisi Penniä. Black color, tan head. Oaky aroma with vanilla and chocolate. Velvety flavor with sublime chocolaty notes, coffee and licorice. Very full body, light carbonation. Excellent example of the style.