Hoppin Frog Barrel Aged BORIS The Crusher

Brewed by Hoppin Frog
Style: Imperial Stout
Akron, Ohio USA

Bomber brought down by in-laws from Andersons in Toledo. Pitch black pour with a solid tan head and lots of stick. Aroma of milk chocolate, coffee and cherry. Tastes of bakers chocolate, marshmallows, soy and bourbon followed by an earthy spiciness and boozy quality. A resiny hop sting comes through in the finish. Oily texture. As is always the case with the barrel aged varieties, would love to sit it next to the regular crusher for comparison. So, great beer but... maybe I just don’t like the whiskey vibe - feel like I like the regular better on this one.

Bottle thanks to shawnm213: Pours an oily opaque black with a spotty-lacing beige head. Aroma of sweet dark caramel and chocolate with some oaky vanilla and cookie dough complexity. Starts with good rich malty sweetness and toasty dark caramel toffee with some soft complex oaky vanilla balance before a semi-sweet bourbon finish. A pretty good barrel-aged imperial stout, but is a bit too sugary.

Pour looks like uncarbonated heavily used motor oil. Oily, foreboding, viscous, and rich. Aroma is bourbon leaning massive sweetness, creamy, loaded with oatmeal, dark fruit, chocolate, deeply roasted coffee, vanilla, and dark sugars such as molasses, burnt caramel, and brown sugar. Flavor is wholly sweet but never cloying. Bourbon, vanilla, roasted and burnt dark sugars, chocolate, coffee, and an epic creaminess culminate in a bitter roast that lingers like a champ. Palate is rich and oily- super thick and smacking. The robustness of the sharp bourbon notes have taken away some of the complexities of what make this beer so great and unique- delectable just the same though.

Motor oil pour, minimal head. Aroma holds the distinctive oatmeal, along with vanilla, cream, caramel, molasses, brown sugar, sweet chocolate, coffee, and some dark fruit. Flavor is phenomenal; tons of caramel, brown sugar, and molasses, along with great vanilla, cream, and chocolate. The bourbon barreling kicks in especially at the end for me, and it is glorious; great booze and wood characteristics. The palate is thick and rich, but still drinkable, and has a sweet finish and aftertaste. Great brew.

Bottle 22fl.oz.
Clear dark red brown color with a average, frothy, fair lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is moderate to heavy malty, roasted, caramel, chocolate, wood, vanilla, light licorice. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and bitter with a long duration. Body is medium to full, texture is oily - creamy, carbonation is soft - flat. [20090922]

Aroma is of high octane cereals and bourbony raisins. Fusely. Strong. Sweet flavors, my wife said "chocolate covered cherries" but I’d have to add soaked in alcohol. This has high heat. There is a little promising depth to the aroma (earth, mostly). Flavors are strongly bourbon. Head dies quickly, but at least it is actually there, living. As it warms a little more, some more depth (accompanied by more alcohol!) shows. In the warmed aroma you get a little hop stringency, a little more earthiness.

Pours black into a snifter. Mocha head recedes to quarter moon the surface. Sweet bourbon, chocolate, espresso, oak and alcohol aromas. Viscous and marshmallowy sweet and full upfront. Turning to bourbon soaked pinwheels in the lasting finish. Different and yummy.

(22 oz. bottle via trade with pantanap, thanks Kan!) Inky-looking as it pours, very dark almost dark purplish brown. Thin, almost purplish brown head. Aroma of big very dark, rich molasses and port, along with chocolate, coffee, brown sugar, bourbon, wood, licorice? - lotsa stuff, all good. Palate is silky smooth and rich. Light webby lacing and a syrupy film. Flavor of very dark molasses, port, chocolate, coffee, light wood and bourbon - pretty much all the stuff in the aroma. Rich and meaty. Kinda hot and finishes with some grassiness, which is a bit detracting. Still a complex, tasty, rich and pretty well put together Imp Stout.