Black Friday Waffle Breakfast T.O.R.I.S.
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

Black Friday Waffle Breakfast T.O.R.I.S. from Hoppin’ Frog. Received on 1/3/21, 2021. Picked up at the brewery for $ 13.77 (Including tax) for 22 oz bottle ($ 0.626/oz). Stored at home at 42 degrees. Reviewed 4/4//21. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated bottle. Served at 58.6 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 62.7 degrees.
Appearance – 4.25.
First pour – Brown (SRM 20), opaque.
Body – Black (SRM 40), opaque. When rear-lite, same. Pours and looks like used motor oil.
Head – Average (Maximum 3.2 cm, aggressive center pour), brown sugar, high density, average retention, leaving a two to three mm crown fed by effervescence, and a thin partial layer.
Lacing – None, but at 13.8% ABV none is expected.
Aroma – 4 – Brown sugar. No hops, no malt, no yeast.
Flavor – 4 – Begins slightly sweet and brown sugary, maybe some molasses but quickly becomes bitter on the hard palate. No hop flavor, no malt, no yeast. No alcohol (13.8 % ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma, although a gastric smoldering occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Ends with a slight malty bitterness.
Palate – 4 – Full, creamy approaching syrupy, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.75 (After deducting 0.25 point for undated bottle) Oddly disappointing since I was expecting some maple and a little waffle/bready flavor, but no, it’s straight brown sugar.

Glossy tar black with a tall but dense mocha head that condenses to a creamy tan blanket settling to a sparse film and soft but thin curled collar.

Really it's mostly that classic HoFro stout and base TORIS. There's a very minimal accent of coffee acidity or mocha liqueur, even less so of waffle or maple. There might be a touch more sweetness, but it's still assertively hoppy, woody and pine resinous, with a big punch of roast, chocolate and char. The char does seem to be more from fresh cooked waffle than anything, as I normally don't get char from base Frog stouts, so there's that.

The full body is roundly satisfying, with a soft froth that cuts to a thinner, slightly stinging, slightly sticky finish.

While I'm happy to have 3 more bombers of TORIS in the house, I'm certainly disappointed that this isn't the adjunct-forward powerhouse I was expecting it to be. At this point in time if you're going to advertise a Black Friday Waffle Breakfast beer, it better really knock you out with those flavors, especially when TORIS is such a fine base to do this with.