Happy New Year's Eve 2019
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

Another one of the clearance bottles from a visit to the brewery last year. Poured into the snulip:

L: Pours a reddish brown color with no head. Medicinal indeed. Reminiscent of a barleywine, but also deeper and darker and... red.

S: A strong aroma of sweet things. My first instinct is berries - strawberry, maybe some blueberry, cherry, cranberry, raspberry. There is also a malty, caramel presence.

T: Interesting. It goes through a rapid prism of flavor. At first sip, I'm getting too much carbonation to feel comfortable making a determination. Next, there is a sort of fruity, malty, even spicy amalgamation. The caramel flavor is really present in the backbone and lingers with a chocolate undertone. I get the berry and raisin combination with some lingering sweetness, like a syrupy, butterscotch quality.

F: Full in body but rather soft. It doesn't have much carbonation, but it does have a bit of burn to it.

Yes, it's a good, simple, non-BA barleywine. A good example of the style and a good sipper.

The color of this beer is unlike any others I can recall. Reddish brown but with a medicinal vibe to it. Almost still. Good clarity. Aroma is a little muted, but very nice. Caramel, malts & booze.

Taste is sweet, but not overly so with strong notes of brown sugar & molasses. The alcohol is well hidden on the tongue, mostly appearing deep into the finish.

Overall, an enjoyable sipper.

Happy New Year’s Eve 2019 from Hoppin’ Frog Brewing. Picked up at the brewery, Akron, OH, 03/10/22. $ 19.26 (Including tax)/bomber ($ 0.875/oz). In reefer at brewery, stored at 37 degrees at home. Reviewed 09/11/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated except for “2019” on the label and “Ready to be enjoyed after June 1, 2019” on the side info. Served at 56.4 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King Snifter. Final temperature 61.3 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Pale Amber (SRM 9), clear.
Body – Medium Amber (SRM 12), translucent. Under direct light, translucent reddish orange. When rear-lite, translucent with a distinct orange cast.
Head – Small (< 0.5 cm, aggressive center pour), gone by the end of the pour, leaving neither crown nor cap, just a one to two mm bubble ring, constantly being renewed by effervescence.
Lacing – None, as expected at 15.8% ABV.
Aroma – 4.5 – Sweet malt. No hops, no yeast, no ethanol.
Flavor – 4.5 – Follows the nose. Sweet but not cloying. No yeast, no hops. No ethanol (15.8 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. However, esopharyngeal and gastric warming occurs immediately on completion of a swallow but doesn’t rise to the level of pain. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Full, lightly syrupy, soft and barely noticeable carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4.25 Despite the lack of head and lacing, this is a beautiful beer – the color alone is enough to entice me! The aroma may be somewhat weak and monotone, but it is more than compensated by the extreme malty flavors – distinctly caramel and toffee. However, there is a bit of harshness on the aftertaste but not enough to distract from the good stuff. Overall, glad I bought it and wish I had a couple more to age.

Well i used to drink this a few years ago and never knew it was a barleywine until I went into the brewery today and asked if they perchance had any plans to make a barleywine. "Well, we have the New Years Eve 2018 and 2019 that are barleywines" so hell yeah i said and bought the 2019 after not drinking it for a few years. Poured out caramel color, a deep rich golden color that looks absolutely wonderful. A very lively half inch head that bubbled furiously before simply disappearing. The smell is caramel and sweet candy, maybe a touch of burned molasses, and definitely a twinge of burning of the nose hairs on a deep inhale. The taste is a delicious cherry and raisin blend that mixes flavors of strong butterscotch and honey, and burned caramel. It's blazingly sweet on first contact, then slightly bitter on the end of the wash, with an eveloping warmth of alcohol heat that rinses it all down. It's slightly syrupy and quite bubbly. And it packs a huge 15%+ punch. Overall quite a delicious brew that carries all of the wonderful characteristics I look for in a good barleywine, the sweetness, the warming heat, the butterscotch caramel blend that summons my tastebuds to salivate and surrender to its sugary syrup. I'll be drinking this again.

 

Beautifully shimmering clear chestnut red with a short khaki head that slowly fizzles out to a smooth surface and a thin gold chain.

Right off the bat the medium body is quite warming, delivering an assertive, unified combo of caramel and pine resin, pairing together well in the American tradition without being scorching of heat or thrashing of bitterness.

At times it seems to have developed notes of spicy peppery bourbon, but to be clear there is no barrel here. Accents of Brazil nut are able to surface before the finish, which is clean but semi-sticky on the lips. The exhale is fiery, but the feel of the booze rises more in the blood and gut than on the palate, which i suppose is well done, considering the ABV.