Three Floyds Alpha Klaus Christmas Porter

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

Thanks Pailhead.. One of the best aromas I have ever smelled... Huge Mocha Coffee aroma with a solid backing of licorice vanilla and spices. Poured a midnight black with a foamy tan brown head .. Big Malty flavor with roast and carmel. Followed by a nice hit of toffee. Thick as a porter can get .. But we cant forget about the hops... very nice ..

Alpha Klaus is the best porter I’ve had. Potent, coffee, licorice, grapefruit, huge head out of the bottle. Big Time Flavor with nice hop malt mix. Can’t do better in the porter department than this.I have one rated higher and another equally rated. Tough to pick who’s best.

Bottle. Pours a deep black body with a small mocha-ish head. The aroma is bursting with chocolate essence, coffee roast bitterness, toffee, and a touch of anise. Seriously. Thick and rich flavoured body. Loads of layered chocolate... dry and bitter throughout. Silky smooth stuff. Excellent! Thanks for sharing this, Derek.

A damn black porter, shows basically no red, with a sparse head. Tons of chocolate aroma and flavor, rum, spicey, earthy hops. OIly body with oxidation. Hoppy but not very bitter. I was disappointed but it’s still a good beer.

Pours blacker than most any porter I’ve seen. The loose to average density tan head head is completely explosive! Pour slowly, or wait a few for it to settle down. the nose is all apiaceous carrotty sort of smells, with roast, sweet malt, fruity, floral hops, and of course, holiday spices, though much more nondescript than most holiday ales (which is a plus here!). The texture is about as creamy as a porter can be, though still slightly watery, reminding me this is a porter, not a stout. A little chewy/sticky/slippery. The flavors are robust as can be. Sweet mollassey roast malt, bitter floral hops, some bittersweet chocolate, subtle cinnamon and alcohol accented hops. The finish is really dry given how sweet this beer is upfront, reminding me of a strong dry stout. Before the after taste goes completely to charcoal, it passes through some chocolatey moments. The alcohol level is quite complimentary to the flavor in this brew. A point or two was knocked off for the price on this brew, but overall, certainly worthy.

A dark beer and a huge fluffy tan head. The major aroma is chocolate malt; its also spicy with just a hint of fruityness too. Its a smooth and creamy beer. The flavour is very roasty with a bitter chocolate finish. Less sweetness in flavour than aroma. This beer smells and tastes great, but it loses a few points overall for being too expensive!!

’04-’05 bomber shared by SuIIy on 4/9/06
Deep cocoa brown colored body, is mostly clear upon settling, with very deep magenta highlights on the edges. Head is light tan colored, fairly rapidly fading to ring and partial cover, with minimal lacing.
The nose throws plenty of burnt, ashen malt notes, a smooth, medium-dry vanilla note in the background and plenty of orange-chocolate that seems rather burly and actually envelopes the roasted notes. Some pine resin notes emerge, mostly dry, bitter, not overly aromatic, while hints of black coffee continue to persist on end. Hops are muted at this point, but still provide large amounts of bitterness, while the chocolate is dry, chalk-like and rather dulling to the nose.
The flavor is at first filled with crunchy, dry, old coffee, quickly adding mildly sweet milk chocolate notes. However, the sweetness does not seem to last long as it begins to get lost in an astringent roastiness that carries with it a mix of dry orange and heavily dry hop-leafiness. A very dry, ashy-chalky note hangs on the palate. Hard bite on the end of dry malts that have no where to go (too filtered, leading to not a comforting or supportive enough texture). That said, the flavor is still very true to an American porter, with plenty of American bittering hops. Overall, however, I just find it too dry, hard and dull. The carbonation is low, however, and the body lightly chewy, though watery on the end upon warming. Alcohol is well-concealed throughout the flavor and aroma.

From bomber. Pours a dark brown with thick coffee head and sticky lacing. Nose is 3F, but a nice balance of orange and chocolate. Flavor has an abundance of chocolate, roasted nuts and a grapefruit dry finish. This combo is fantastic.