Three Floyds Alpha Klaus Christmas Porter

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

12/7/07, on tap at maproom, $3.50/12oz beer of the month special. pours dark brown with creamy tan head. nose of piney and floral hops with a roasty milk chocolate to it. flavor has sweet piney and juicy hops with milk chocolate and a touch of roast to it. mouth feel is a bit thin as the body is thin. this is very drinkable. it could be one of those "this beer used to be better" but i recall enjoying this a lot more in years past with more hops.3.7.

12/9/07, and 2 days later holdenn shares a bottle and we both agree, this beer is not as a hoppy as last year. it is now a nice porter but i thought it was the hops that always made this special. no more! 3.7.

Fresh 2007 bomber. Pours normal porter brown/black with a pretty big and foamy tan head. Aroma is chocolate, slight roast, faint tobacco, some zesty, perhaps piney hops but nowhere near the amount I was expecting. Interesting taste. Prickly hops and a roasty chocolate flavor mix before a very long, pretty bitter finish. Silky, creamy and soft in the mouth with a decent amount of carbonation and a medium/full body. Certainly different than your average porter. Enjoyable.

This is my favorite Porter. Aroma is plain. Pours almost black, thin head. Hints of chocolate and roasted malt. You can taste hops, but not overpowering by any means. Just enough to make it interesting in a Porter. This is a fresh bottle, I seem to remember there being more hops in past years.

Pours jet black with about a finger of creamy tan head that laces nicely. The aroma is fairly simple but quite nice: bittersweet chocolate malt and solid, dark, roasted malt with just a hint of hops poking out in the background. Medium-bodied and silky-slick with a nice lightly bitter finish. The flavor is a tasty blend of roasted chocolate malt and bright, piny hops. In print, that combination sounds odd, but in reality it works quite well. This is easily the hoppiest porter that I’ve sampled to date, but if there’s a brewer that consistently creates interesting and tasty well-hopped beers, in styles that others dare not, Three Floyds is it.

Drove almost 6 hours each way to grab the last of a few three floyds in OH. Well worth the drive, very smooth beer. Could taste chocolate alot, but not overpowering. A MUST TRY

Wow somebody burnt my beer, probably the most roasted taste I have ever had. Usually when one flavor dominates that is a death sentance for beer, but Three Floyds pulls this one off. Hopefully I can get my hands on this once more before the season is over, and if Alpha King has any more cousins then bring em on.

2006 vintage aged nearly one year. Pours a very dark mahogany body with a virtually black center. A large, foamy, khaki colored head shows good retention, settling very slowly to a thin layer. Sticky patches of lacing coat the glass. The aroma is based on a masterful blend of sweet and bitter chocolates. Accompanying the chocolaty goodness is caramel, vanilla, and a heaping amount of resinous pine hops. I even picked up a faint hint of mint on the nose. The flavor is comprised of mostly the same components, though dried dark fruits emerge and the resinous hops really show through strong. Rich and complex. Medium-full bodied and silky smooth. Finishes with an awesome chocolaty, piney flurry. Awesome beer! If I had to give an overall analogy, I’d say this beer feels the way a snow covered evergreen forest looks. Perfect for a Christmas seasonal.

1000! This is it! Generously donated to the cause by Dan! Thanks again and again. 2006 22oz bomber tasted 10NOV2007. Nice lively hiss as the cap is popped. Pours like oil unleashing a finger width of thick tan head. Nice viscotiy. Heady aromas of berry fruit and bready toffee. Warming, not burning the nostrils. Full bodied with a huge malt character followed up by an equally impressive hop bitterness. Chocolate malt notes. Short lived sweet candy malt flavor. This lingers for a bit, then its replced by a big bitter dark coffee acidity and citrus resinous hops. Lovely stratography of the clinging head. Wonderful melding and joining of such extreme flavors. Blitzkreigs over the palate and smacks around my taste buds. I eagerly submit. Cocoa maltiness. Acidic grapefruit hops. Sticky bitter tingling finish. Thick and delicious. The second pour is less gracefull and produces a three finger potential overflow of tight head. The head is very slowly dissipating, and it only adds a creamy smoothness to the already phenomenal malt character. As it warms, the subtle fruit notes surface. Red and black berries. Raisins and dried fruits. Dark chocolate sweetness with an almost lingering fudgy note. And while the malts still dance and linger in the mouth, the dry almost tart hop finishkinda brings you back. Ebbs and flows. Strikes and gutters! Third and final glass once again produces more head than nectar. Good looking tight clinging layered head. If its possible, there seems to be more cocoa and choclate in the nose. The only other not forementioned immediate addition is a citrus zest. Maybe from the yeast, but most probally from the hop profile. Yeah, the hops. Sugary and candy. Citrus notes. Nice fruit hop mix between orange, lemon and grapefruit. But still such a blissfull cocoa malt flavor. I always lovingly use "toasty roasty" as a quality for a fine porter. And while this has set a new zenith, it still has that simple nuance. More fruit at the finish of the glass. The head has lingered through the finale. And contributed an overall rounding to the bitter and piney middle and finish. This has truly been an experience! This is indeed the BEST porter that I have ever had!