Review of Hoppin' Frog Hop Dam Triple IPA
Posted By Ken Sunday, 24 April 2011 11:37
This was another beer on the Charleston trip, however it was not purchased by me. Ironically, a good friend of mine from work had to be down in Charleston the first week I was there, and picked up a bottle of this while at lunch in a little cafe that also had an amazing beer and wine selection for carry-out I got to visit with him later than night. We ended up trying this while sitting in his hotel room watching the sad display called the Butler/UConn NCAA tournament. Being a major hop-head, I was excited to try this, especially since it was free! Read on to see what I thought of this triple IPA.
Ken's Review
Taste: B Well, being a triple IPA it didn't screw around on the hop flavor. In all honesty, this gave more of a back-tone of hops while being blanketed by a more piney taste. The pine definitely came through more and layered with the hops, as well as some grapefruit and a bit of caramel notes to it. I would have probably gone higher on this, but personally I found this to be one where I personally wanted more hops and less pine, but it still worked decent and gave the effect I'm sure it was after.
Packaging: A- Hoppin' Frog, of course, has a frog on the front holding a mug of beer, while Triple I.P.A. and Hop Dam underneath it reside over its midsection, with a giant hop on each side. It's odd to say, but somehow this packaging really sets the right tone for what you are about to drink. I don't know how to explain it, but I could see a correlation between the bottle and the taste. Maybe it was just me, or just me getting drunk pretty fast.
Value: B- I can't say for certain what the normal pricing on this is, or if what my friend paid was the normal pricing, but he paid $16.00 for this bomber. I would guess that while that might be a little over-priced, knock a couple bucks off and that would probably be the average. I have seen this around Indy, but never paid a lot of attention to the price. For the content and taste, I can't say this is absurd, but maybe a little higher than you might want to pay.
Drunkeness: A Hoppin' Frog Triple IPA will hop your face off with a 10% alcohol content. Okay, bad description to start this section, but screw it. You can't really expect much less than 10% from a triple IPA, but I honestly thought it might be a bit more. Overall, however, you aren't going to miss out on getting a good buzz of an entire bottle of this, that's for sure.
Overall: B First of all, thank you to my friend Jason for number one buying this, and number two sharing it. At a $16 bomber I hate to say I would be reluctant to part with too much of it, but good friends are good friends. Can't say that I would ever personally run to buy a bomber of this stuff, but would happily partake in it again if given the opportunity. If you are not a fan of hops, then you will probably hate this beer, but even those who like regular IPAs could find some enjoyment out of this. Overall, I was pretty impressed, but it didn't necessarily blow me away as much as I had hoped.