Happy New Year's Eve 2018
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

Good looking beer. Amber in color with good clarity and a decent reddish beige head. Aroma is wonderful, with plenty of toffee, caramel and molasses and not a hint of booze.

Taste is nice and sweet with caramel and toffee taking the lead. As with the nose, the alcohol is amazingly well hidden except for some nice warming in the stomach. There's no bitterness at all, yet the sweetness is not overwhelming. Overall, a very enjoyable beer.

Happy New Year’s Eve 2018 from Hoppin’ Frog Brewing. Picked up at the brewery, Akron, OH, 08/04/22. $ 9.63 (Including tax)/22 oz bottle ($ 0.438/oz). In reefer at brewery, stored at 37 degrees at home. Reviewed 26/06/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
No date other than “2018” on the label. Served at 56.8 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King Snifter. Final temperature 61.3 degrees.
Appearance – 4
First pour – Deep Amber (SRM 15), chill haze. By the time it warms to drinking temperature, the haze is gone.
Body – Deep Amber (SRM 15), opaque. When rear-lite, translucent, and caramel.
Head – None, instantly fizzes and disappears; consequently, neither cap nor crown.
Lacing – None, thanks to 13.6% ABV.
Aroma – 4 – Caramel, sweet, and some weak dark fruit. No hops, no yeast.
Flavor – 4.25 – Sweet caramel, maybe some butterscotch, but no yeast and no hops. No ethanol (13.6 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste, although some ethanol is detectable in the nose on the exhale. Gastric burning initially occurs but slowly attenuates. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Full, syrupy, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Despite the lack of head and lacing, the coloration alone makes this a 4 in appearance! Taste and aroma tend to caramel with ghosts of butterscotch and dark fruit, sweet. No trace of hops at four years. Just plain good!

Bottle from Tavour. Medium amber, flat pour. Aroma is malty and pretty boozy. Taste brings more caramel, toffee, sweet and very warm. Much better than expected.

Shared bottle at local tasting. 2018 vintage. Orange colour, white head. The aroma has notes of old jam and alcohol. Alcoholic sweet flavour. Over the top for me.

 

Bought in Dec 2020 so I'm a little late to the party since this was for New Years 2018. Actually almost 3 years too late but they apparently still have some bottles left sitting around. Nice amber caramel coloration, orange-ish yellow, with a small head that quickly dissipates and collects around the rim of the glass. A gentle scent of toffee and caramel and a little sweet waft of butterscotch. Taste is predominantly caramel and butterscotch, very devilishly and deliciously sweet. Alcohol heat warms the mouth after the brew is swallowed. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, and overall it's a pleasing barleywine. I like barleywines, they are high in alcohol and sweet on taste.

 

 

look: Crystal clear copper. Sparse off white head.
smell: Malty but light. quite subtle for a big beer. Some toffee and dark fruit.
taste: Much like the nose. very light, some light apple in addition to the notes in the nose.

 

 

They caved and put this on draft 6 months prior to when the label suggests you open the bottle, so I'll go ahead and review it, and revisit when I open my bottle next year.

Appearance is hazy copper-amber with a thin khaki collar.

Dominant notes of caramel and toffee interplay with sweet biscuit and a slight orange and pine hop presence, with a little booze on the swallow.

It's a good quality, middle of the road Barleywine, more restrained than expected for Hoppin' Frog actually, but would probably be a knockout after some barrel aging, like many of their other takes on the style have proven.