Three Floyds Alpha Klaus Christmas Porter

Brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Strong Porter
Munster, Indiana USA

22oz bomber. This was awesome! smells like fruit cake! very fruity aroma, and flavor, i’m getting sweet grapefruit, and other fruits, nice bittering in the finish, amazing stuff!

poured from 22 oz. bomber, the only way this beer is available as I understand it, into a rugged pint beer glass, on a windy April Fool’s Day (my 25th wedding anniversary), while wearing my black Guinness 1759 logo hat, slow smoking a slab of pork shoulder on the grill, and looking at Alpha Klaus’ menacing visage on the label wantonly dumping hops into his strange brew like they grew on trees or something. I got the last two bombers left on the shelf, or so the nice, helpful young lady at Keg Liquors in Clarksville, IN told me. No more ’til next yule. First impressions: Wow! What a dark brew. As an experiment, I held the glass up to a glowing light bulb, and you can’t see light through this stuff! The guys at Three Floyds did an excellent job on this recipe, delicious in every way, and I’ve rarely seen its like for head retention. The head rises in a column like soft serve ice cream and has a color like that taken on by the dollop of whipped cream on top of an espresso drink after it’s been floating on the coffee for a while. It leaves little gradations on the glass, marking each place where you took another quaff. It strikes me that I picked the wrong time of year to sample this beer. I wish I had had it two months ago, while sitting next to a roaring fire, wearing my thick baja hoodie and listening to Woody’s Roadhouse on WFPL FM Louisville on Saturday night, while everyone else in the house dozed dreamily in their beds. Whereas I have downed a pint of Alpha Klaus already (the 7 or so ounces left in the glass is still holding tenaciously onto the remaining trace of head, and I have consumed it pretty slowly), and the 7.5 % ABV has worked its magic on me, and as I am somewhat of a neophyte at this beer rating stuff, I’ll leave it to the other beer loving wordsmiths on this site to fine in the details for you. All I can say is Wow. Wow. WOW! This beer deserves whatever mystique has attached itself to it due to its seasonal nature and limited availability. It’s good, nay excellent, beer if you can get it. The very buzzable and fearsome Alpha Klaus will see you again, with his Santa Claus hat terminating in a hop flower where the puff of cotton is supposed to be, when frost is in the air late 2007! Cheers and happy quaffing ~ wheresbaldo

Bottled Gift from Stegosaurus. Beautiful black pour with a thick bubly tan head. Aroma of coffee, chocolate sugar and ALOT of hops. A porter with an abundance of hop aroma ? WOW ! Complex aroma is all I can say. The flavor is pretty much the same with a dry hoppy /coffee/chocolate finish. If anyone rated this below a 3.5 here is what you need to do, go get a case of budweiser, grab your banjo start a bon fire and kiss your cousin because you are lost. THIS IS A+ BREWING WORK AT ITS BEST !

Bottle. Dark, dark brown pour with massive tan head of mid-sized bubbles. Aromas are chocolate, vanilla, a touch of floral/citrus hops as it warms. Flavor starts off with a bit of a toffee sweetness and then proceedes to get more and more coffee like.

Bomber...incredible aroma. Flavor is very complex. Must have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink! Coffee, chocolate, caramel maltiness. Balanced with a tremendous hop boquet!

Bottle, thanks to DrBayern! Pours a dark black color with a very nice, thick, creamy tan head on top. This beer looks absolutely wonderful. The aroma is full of chocolate, vanilla, coffee, caramel, molasses, and hints of citrusy hops. Flavor is full of coffee, chocolate, and roasted malts. Hints of caramel and vanilla are in the flavor profile too. Citrusy hops are sneaking in too adding a wonderful bitterness to the beer. On the palate the beer is incredibly smooth from start to finish. No hints of alcohol show up at all. This beer is absolutely phenomenal!

22 oz. Btl. Pours a lucious espresso color with a silky texture settling in with a rich frothy head. Aroma was complex with hints of chocolate and foral citrus notes. Starts like a chocolate malt with caramel and dark roast coffee quickley lending way to a citrus flavor very uncharacteristic of a porter. Like a milk chocolate turtle covered coffe bean melted over a mix of ctrus fruits and chammomile... As a n IAPA fan, I loved this beer.

Another hit from Three Floyds! This beer made me remember why I love porters. Deep black pour with a beautiful mahogonay head that is probably still there to this day and laced all the way down the glass. Intense aroma of coffee. Tastes like chocolate coffee with hops in the background. Nice and dry bitter finish. Has all the taste of a stout without the thick and syrupy mouthfeel. I’ll see Mr. Klaus next year.