Hoppin' Frog Silk Porter

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

650 ml bottle, Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 6.2%. Black colour, large to moderate brown head. Nice aroma of mildly roasted malts and caramel malts, notes of coffee, caramel, chocolate and vanilla. Silky smooth mouthfeel and flavour, like the name makes you anticipate, The flavour has the same elements as the aroma, with just the right sweetness, and sufficient hops in the finish. Very enjoyable and easy drinking.

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

I like Hoppin Frog, they have some great beers. So I was a little disappointed with this. Very little head or cling. Roasted malt, milk chocolate, vanilla and wood flavour. Aroma is similar but much weaker. Almost full mouthfeel. Still scores ok despite me expecting better.

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

Slightly murky near-black pour, super dark brown, tight tan head, great lacing. Roasted malt aroma, light molasses and caramel, very light java and cocoa, earthy hops. Mouthfeel is smooth and almost creamy. Nice rich roasted grains flavor, lightly sweetened by caramel and very light molasses and brown sugar, smooth - almost as big as a lot of stouts - light earthy hops to offset all of those toasted malts. Great porter - very Worthy.

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

Jet blackness in color. A small foamy textured, off white head rises briefly above. Settles into a medium sized ringlet and light dusting of film. Chocolate and coffee bean. Bitter up front. Sweet malt in the aftertaste. Smooth light-medium body.

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

Pours black, black, black. Aroma of coffee and chocolate. Mouthfeel has an interesting sharp bite. Flavor is coffee and chocolate. Nice all around, I liked it!

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

Pours a nice opaque warm sable with a fairly thick tan head that is more like the head of cola since it fizzes a lot and dissipates more quickly than most beer heads. Aroma is strong and smoky with hints of quality coffee and brown sugar. Flavor is like fine roast coffee with a touch of molasses and just a hint of hops. Texture is fizzy and lively, a teensy thin but otherwise quite good.

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

Dark brown in color with a collapsing tan head and heavy, spotty lacing. Rich, malty aroma with accents of brown sugar, caramel, chocolate and coffee. Good earthy flavor that is malt driven. Roasted nuts and crunchy toast with a hint of cocoa and toffee. Smooth and creamy, drinks really nice. Well made porter.

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

A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three-finger thick, lightly browned, dark tan colored head. The beer is a dark, concentrated brown almost black color that shows some ruby highlights when held up to the light. The aroma smells of dark chocolate up front but then quickly becomes quite roasted with espresso notes, burnt grain husks, lots of toasted whole grain and even a touch of musty malt character. The aroma is definitely on the charred and burnt side of the spectrum, though it is not so much as to leave the aroma harsh.

Lightly sweet tasting up front, the beer has a medium'ish body to it that lightly coats the palate. The carbonation provides a substantial prickle as well as some sharp carbonic acid; after the carbonation is forcibly removed the beer becomes much more smooth and well integrated. Sweet malted chocolate and some roasted berry notes up front are tempered by a herbal hop flavor, a hop bitterness and a roast grain bitterness in the finish. Hmm, after stepping away from my beer for a bit, I think I know what makes this taste so sweet. There is a definite, though subtle, note of diacetyl here that adds a touch of butterscotch to the flavor. This definitely has a simplistic, at time annoying sugar sweetness to it.

This is a nice beer, I was definitely in the mood for some dark grain on this cold, by Tucson standards, winter evening and this has hit the spot. I could wish for a touch more smooth, chewy dark malt, with a bit less of the simple sweetness (more of a caramelized malt sweetness would have worked a little better here), but this is still a tasty beer. Well here is a bit of a dichotomy, the more I work my way through this bottle, the more cloying and annoying it gets. Not horrible, but I am really not digging the simple, sugary sweetness here; the body is just too light to support this amount of sweetness.

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

A black apperance with a moderate tan head. Aroma is malted milk balls, chocolate, and some coffee. The flavor is rather rich with some Milk Duds, dark chocolate and more coffee. The mouthfeel is creamy and sweet. Overall a world class porter. RIBBIT!