Chocolate Orange Stocking Stuffer
Hoppin' Frog Brewery

Medium light carbonation with about a medium body
Aroma came off light chocolate covered orange cream candy. A little orange liquor and juice
Taste is almost identical to aroma.
Makes for a good dessert beer

At the risk of damaging any craft credibility I might have, this tastes an awful lot like a Bud Light Orange.

At the risk of further damaging and craft beer credibility I might have, I like Bud Light Orange.

16oz can from Tavour. Golden pour, mildly cloudy, fizzy head dissipates. Orange candy aroma, orange soda, hint of orange peel. Orange-y flavors continue into the taste with a mere hint of chocolate rounding it out. I was expecting a big Hoppin' Frog imperial stout, so imagine my surprise when this delicious radler poured out.

 

Chocolate Orange Stocking Stuffer – from Hoppin’ Frog. 16 fl oz can acquired from the brewery. Picked up 12/12/23. Reviewed 15/12/23 (Review 3195). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
On bottom of can “BEST BY OCT 12 20??”. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 46.4 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 57.3 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Pale Straw (SRM 2), slight chill haze.
Body – Straw (SRM 3), opaque. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, straw, and hazy.
Head: Average (Maximum 2.5 cm, aggressive center pour), white, high density, average retention, dropping to a 0.2 cm crown, and a thin cap.
Lacing – Fair. Irregular ring of tiny to small bubbles having many stalactites and a few stalagmites.
Aroma – 4.5 – Distinctly orange and very fresh-smelling. No malt, no yeast, no alcohol (7 % ABV as marked on the label).
Flavor – 4 – Begins orangey and very fresh-tasting. No yeast, no malt, no alcohol (7 % ABV as marked on the label). No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Initially, no gastric warming.
Palate – 4 – Medium; watery; lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4.25 I can’t taste any chocolate although my son says he can. The orange is very distinct in both aroma and flavor; indeed, the orange carries it. Overall, a nice orange shandy.

Poured a hazy straw color with a rapidly dissipating effervescence head with zero retention. The color surprised me. When it said chocolate orange, I pictured a dark beer.

Blindfolded, I'd tell you this was orange crush based on the smell. It's been sitting for a bit, and I can still hear the carbonation. The smell isn't a chocolate orange. Its a glass of pop - or soda, if you're from down the road a ways.

Taste isn't bad, but it's not an accurate representation of the name. This is orange, orange, and more orange. Very sweet. Maybe HF bounced a Toblerone off the 2 liter of Orange Crush. I don't dislike this, but it's not what I expected or hoped for.

Mouthfeel is medium, very carbonated, and somewhat sticky.

Nifty beer, but glad I bought one.

Foggy dull and pale yellow with a short and fuzzy off-white head.

It smells like full on zippy, spritzy and zesty Crush, which already throws me off further than I started when I realized this chocolate-orange beer was not going to be a stout, but a shandy instead.

Taste brings the slightly fuller shandy base in, but with such a subtle chocolate character it's more like a straight up orange shandy than the inspiration.

Even though HoFro can often surprise, just as the style choice perplexed me, the execution doubled down and never really changed my mind in this case.