Dark Hoppy Shadow
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

2023-04-26
16oz can served in a tulip. This beer has traveled backwards in time. It is specifically and very legibly dated "CANNED ON MAY 31 2025." Received from @ozzylizard in NBS BIF #17.

Pours black, with about two centimeters of dense, light tan head, that settles into a very even, thick skin that covers the surface of the beer and climbs about a centimeter up the side of the glass. Smell is roasty, pine resin bitterness, nutty, burnt toffee.

Taste is unexpected. First sip is very sweet. Molasses, maybe some maple syrup, maybe a little chocolate syrup. There is a definite roasty character, with the sweetness makes me think of coffee with a lot of sugar added. Burnt toffee, char, a bit of anise, again mostly hiding behind the sweetness. Which is weird, because I'm making it sound like overwhelming, cloying sweetness, but it's not. It does dominate, but it is not overwhelming. All the non-sweet flavors are ganging up on it together and almost holding their own.

Mouthfeel is rich, velvety, and smooth. Overall, I'm really enjoying this, but I think it falls outside of the bounds of the Black IPA style by quite a bit. I suspect that's the brewer's intent, and I really enjoy the beer, so I'm not going to knock it for that. I think it would be more correctly lumped under a vague style like Strong Ale or even American Barleywine.

Dark Hoppy Shadow from Hoppin’ Frog, 16 oz can. Picked up at brewery 22/03/23. Reviewed 06/04/23 (Review 3066). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Stamped on can bottom “CANNED ON MAY 31 2025”, obviously incorrect – somebody was drinking when they set up the canning line. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 41.9 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 55.5 degrees.
Appearance – 4.25.
First pour – Deep Amber (SRM 15), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque with many rising bubbles. Under direct light, same. When rear lite, shows a translucent red amber at the thinner areas.
Head – Average (Maximum two cm, aggressive center pour), wheat, high density, receding to a five to seven mm crown and thin, rocky cap.
Lacing – Excellent! Tight, narrow rings of nearly invisible bubbles, occasionally connected by average columns, with many tiny soda straw stalactites. Quire unexpected at 15.1 % ABV. These later evolve into delicately torn curtains.
Aroma – 3.25 – Initially little aroma – really horning it gives hints of roasted malt. No yeast, no hops. No ethanol (15.1 % ABV as marked on can) aroma.
Flavor – 4 – A bit odd, basically roasted malt, no “Belgian ale aroma and flavor”. Initially no hops, no yeast. Weak gastric warming – at this ABV I expected a burn. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. As it warms, the hops become noticeable.
Palate – 4 – Medium; approaching syrupy; soft, tickling carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 OK, but kind of like an ideal chemical agent – nearly odorless and tasteless. Warmth may be the key – not surprisingly, as it warms both flavor and aroma move up a notch or two. Still…

Dull coffee blackish-brown with a short but fairly persistently fluffy tan head that levels out and curls at the creamy ridge leaving brainy lacing.

Despite a label and description sounding like this would probably translate more as a barleywine, the nose is in line with Black IPA, but for a touch of booze: that is, citrusy and piney with light roast coffee qualities.

Feel is actually syrupy at first, but definitely boozier, where on the palate it does begin to resemble slight American barleywine characteristics, with maybe a little caramel, pine and resin. Yet oddly enough, it's still more in line with the Black IPA style, just an absurdly potent one.

The roundly medium, almost full body has a fine carbonation that leads to a chewy, lightly sticky dryness in the swallow. It's just the heat that begins to impose and detract over time.