Barrel-Aged Chestnut Plum Pudding
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

 

Poured from a 16-oz can stamped “BEST BY DEC 15 2023, to a tulip glass at 50F.
The pour stream looks like root beer, but the liquid in the glass is black. There is no head, but for a really small ring that is gone in 30 seconds.
This baby smells rich. Plums and oak with a floral background. The first whiffs bring the alcohol, but that goes away as it airs out.
The flavor is just as rich- plums, cinnamon, raisins, dark coffee. Not sure if it's the cinnamon or the alcohol but there is a little burn mid-taste.
Despite zero head, there is medium carbonation. Oiliness is also a mouthfeel feature as is a lipsticking sensation.
There is a lot to this beer. The more you sip the more you find.

2023-04-30
16oz can served in a footed pilsner glass. Can is marked Best By Dec 15 2025. @ozzylizard sent it to me in NBS BIF #17.

Pours very dark brown, murky, thick, with very little head on the pour and just a thin ring that grows as it sits in the glass. There appears to be a substantial amount of very fine, very slow active carbonation. Smell is rich, vanilla and dates, made me think of sticky toffee pudding up front. I can definitely smell some of the barrel.

Taste is sweet, leaning hard toward dates or prunes, moderate cake-y sweetness. Booze is quite noticeable, barrel less so. Vanilla is definitely there. Eventually I notice a bitterness that really helps the whole thing out. Not totally sure what to call it, somewhere in the woody direction, I want to blame that on the chestnut but I really have no idea. But wow, that note really elevates this beer from "another sweet boozy stout" to something pretty special.

Mouthfeel is hefty, just a hint of liveliness to it. Overall, this is a quite nice beer, a bit outside my typical flavor vocabulary.

Barrel Aged Chestnut Plum Pudding from Hoppin’ Frog, 16 oz can. Picked up at brewery 22/03/23. Reviewed 01/04/23 (Review 3061). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Stamped on can bottom “BEST BY DEC 15 2025”. Stored at 42 degrees at home. Served at 55 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 58.8 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Amber (SRM 14), clear.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, same coloration but heavy precipitate clinging to the glass. When rear lite, a beautiful translucent ruby.
Head – Average (Maximum 3 cm, aggressive center pour), earth yellow, medium density and fizzy, quickly receding to neither crown nor cap, only a scant ring of near-microscopic bubbles.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 4 – Smells like generic dark fruit (probably plum) and sweet. No malt, no yeast, no hops. No ethanol (12.3 % ABV as marked on can) aroma.
Flavor – 4.5 – Begins moderately sweet with some plum flavor. No hops, no yeast, no malt. Marked gastric warming which subsides to a pleasing glow. No mocha, no cinnamon (My favorite spice), darned little BBA flavor. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Full; approaching syrupy; soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4.25 It’s been some time since I consumed chestnuts and I do not remember their taste. The dark fruitiness of the plums distinctly comes through and matches the moderate sweetness well. The bourbon barrel aging appears in the aftertaste and is less than overt. Overall, Southern Tier’s Plum Noir was slightly better, but this is still quite good.

Dark but clear brown with lighter brown edges under a largely fluid surface that fails to build head.

The fairly viscous and sticky body delivers notes of dark fruit, figgy pudding, lava cake, bitter roots and medium char before exhaling a hint of dusty cinnamon and warming booze.

The rounded, medium, just shy of syrupy body has a fine but firm carbonation despite the lack of head, all coming to a chewy dry finish, though sticky up front.

A delightful blend I hope they do more variations of.