Hoppin' Frog Hop Dam Triple I.P.A.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

Aroma is SERIOUSLY hoppy - you could smell the hops if you were a kilometer upwind. It has woody and grassy notes and a subtle undertone of grapefruit. It pours a clear, dark amber with a nice light tan head and a few goobers in the bottom. Flavor is - WOOHOO, monumentally hoppy, more grassy and hay than evergreen, fairly but not fiercely bitter, with fruity and citrus undertones and a hint of caramel. Smooth, firm-bodied texture has plenty of sass and fizz. If you like hoppy beers, this one will be right up your alley!

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Hazy golden orange pour with a decent white head, floating yeast sediment, some lacing. Nice big hoppy aroma - mango, grapefruit, piney - with some honey and malts. Big flavor too, bittersweet tropical fruits, some malt to offset hop bomb that it is. Nice brew.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Sampled from bottle. Thanks, Dansting! Pours hazy dark brown with an adequate light-tan head. Dank hop aroma and an aggressive hop flavor. Thick malt backbone - high FG. Quite the hop bomb!

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Pours amber with small, scattered head. It has the type of bold aroma that bursts out of the bottle upon opening. There are floral notes alongside grapefruit, pine, and alcohol. Flavor is bitter, seriously bitter. The only sweetness comes in the form of fruit character; I went back and forth between peach and melon. Clean finish. Body is a thinnish medium with moderate-to-strong carbonation. Notable warming. Worth a try for sure--this beer is not messing around. Very fun sampler courtesty of Dansting.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

22oz bottle. Pours a hazy reddish copper with a medium creamy off white head that goes to a thin film and leaves some lacing.

The aroma is sweet sugary melon and catty, resiny hops with some alcohol as it warms.

The flavor is some sweet fruity malts followed by a huge hop bang in the finish - very resiny and kind of catty and tarry. The alcohol is pretty well hidden. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with low creamy carbonation.

Overall, an expensive, big unbalanced hop monster, but fun.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Bottled@The 2nd ES/CS Beer Tasting. (thanks K.K.). Slightly hazy coppery golden colour with a small white head. Leaves some lace. Aroma is lots of fruity and floral hops along with honey, nectar, wood and some herbal notes. Flavour is quite similar along with caramel and crystal maltyness. Pleasantly balanced Imperial IPA.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

bottle into a Duvel tulip Taste is led by the nose. Grapefruit, pine, citrus, some sweetness but mostly hops and alcohol. Body is average for this style. I would love to describe the subleties of this beer but they are lost on me. As much as I love hoppy, these are intense and overpowering anything and everything else. As far as drinkability or sessionable - nope. The combination of the hops and the alcohol (and the expense) render this a one-time thing.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Picked this one up at Knightly. Big grapefruit, peach and mango aroma. Mild alcohol fumes join in as well. Bright reddish-copper color, nice khacki head, thin layer of foam stays on top. Hops dominate this one. Citrusy, hop oily, and pine flavors along with tangy candy. Very bitter hops, sharp and long-lasting. There’s some thickening malt but that’s all it does as this is all about the hops. Not the most drinkable thing, especially if you’re not a huge hop head, but a really good beer. A little alcohol heat is there but not bad at all and all things considered it’s quite controlled. I’m glad this clocks in at 10% instead of approaching Devil Dancer or DFH 120 abv levels. Just a really tasty hop bomb but awfully expensive.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Great Imperial IPA, able to try this fresh at the yearly Winter Warmer Festival. Vibrant dark copper body with a large frothy head and ample lacing. Grapefruit and pine are very assertive in the aroma, also picked up on some peach, lemon and honey. Big and heavy, yet fairly dry. Puckering hops and a bitter aftertaste. Nice, just a bit too much for my liking when it comes to the way a big hoppy beer should feel. Fresh hop and biscuity, grassy flavors complimented by a tinge of caramel.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Bottle, home. Good beer but a bit disappointing. This beer pours a pretty standard shade of orange-gold with a nice head, a shade or two of yellow past white. The aroma packs a lot of hops. It seems to run a bit more piney, but the big three American hop aromas, pine, grapefruit and floral, are present and accounted for. DIPAs seem to be locked in a battle for most fragant and Hop Dam does well in this regard, but I’d honestly prefer something more than pure strength at this point. The flavor is dry and generally good but just a bit too astringent/paint thinner heavy to compete with the best DIPAs. It’s nice and bitter, and I’m certainly not scared off by the astringency, but the best DIPAs (looking at you PtY) just drink smoother. Mouthfeel is a tad rough. I’ve just been bowled over too many times by too many other super-hopped DIPAs to be all that impressed by this sort of no-holds-barred take on the style. That said, I love hops, and this beer certainly provides a hop fix.