Three Floyds Alpha Klaus Christmas Porter

Brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Munster, Indiana USA

Christmas ’05 Edition. Black with a stunning tan head leaving excellent lacing. Complex smell of pine, coffee, currants, and chocolate. Coffee starts you off, then pine with a dry roasted and chocolate finish. Low carbonation and light bodied, I could stand a little more body. I enjoyed it and look forward to trying it again.

Sampled from 22-oz bottle and shared by BDR, pours an opaque dark brown brew with a thin tan head that has some nice retention, some spotty lacing and some brown ring highlights. Aroma of toasted dark malt, some coffee, dark chocolate and a touch of berry. Taste is smooth, creamy with a nice balance of roasted dark malt, chocolate and some sweet molasses. Finish has a slight metallic texture, some alcohol presence but has a sweet chocolate and toasted dark malt aftertaste that lingers after the finish.

(bottle, thanks BDR!) Pours black with a tan head. Aromas of roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, marshmallow, and some hops, but not really that strong. The tastes are strong on chocolate, coffee, roasted malt. As this warms some dark fruit flavor shows up as well. Further warming allows some alcohol to be present on the finish, which imparts almost a candy-like taste. Mouthfeel was medium to full, with a roasted finish. Pretty good.

Bottle served at 50 F pours a dark brown color with tan head. Has a very chocolatey aroma to it. Also has some hop on the nose as well. Mouthfeel is medium light. Has bold malt flavors. I pick up a ton of chocolate, some coffee, and a slight sweet hop presence in the middle. The finish is dominated by sweet chocolate. Overall this is probably one of my favorite porters. The only downside is for a name like alpha klaus I would have expected more hops in the brew. I picked this up at Darklord day so I am guessing it should be fresh considering I bought it at the brewery. It was stored upright in my fridge until consumption. Still a nice brew overall.

Bottle. Pours a deep, intensely dark burgundy. Head is beige and creates some decent lacing. Tinges of piney hops are very noticeable to the nose at first. As you get past the initial hops, the more malty aromas appear. Roasted coffee is pretty dominant with toffee and a dry cocoa as its complement. The mouthfeel is strangely very juicy. The flavour is of pine and juicy, sweet apple mixed with some chocolate, molasses, and lightly roasted coffee. The lasting sweetness seems to be a blend of a fruit-like sweetness and molasses. Coffee and cocoa flavours escalate towards the moderately dry and bitter finish. However, the sweet fruitiness continues to be somewhat dominant. This is very tasty, though, I was hoping to see more coffee and cocoa.

Bottle. Dark brown pour, a little orange, and a thin brown head thanks to alexanderj. Aroma is chocolate, light roast and very english porter-like. The flavor is the same, good chocolate and bittering hops in the finish. I remember trying this a couple years ago and not liking it too much, but now I think it’s one of the best tasting porters out there.

Blankboys bottle, shared with Tupalev, HogTownHarry and Blankboy: App: Deep black, huge frothy head. Aroma: Chocolate, Pine, malt and espresso. Flavour: Pine and chocolate, (cheap chocolate) a little ’dusty’ but yet malty! Not too shabby, but not my favourite :-(

Damn another one from Eithcubes. One day I will have all these ratings in here for all the retarded beer this guy sent me. Big flavor and sweetness as expected from FFF but not necessarily as expected from a porter. Roasted malt and chocolate flavors. Slightly chalky texture. Big porter leaves a sweetness that lasts a while. Big nice aroma of roasted malt and coffee.