Hoppin' Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale

Brewed By: Hoppin' Frog Brewery in Akron, Ohio  

Purchased: Bodacious 22oz bomber bought at Binny's in IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Spice/Herb/Vegetable (Imperial Pumpkin Ale), 8.4%

Reported IBUs: 7.3

How could I resist this bottle of beer, with a full moon on the bottle, and that hoppin' frog. Plus, I really enjoyed Hoppin' Frog's B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher.

Hoppin' Frog is a "small, hands-on brewery making very flavorful beers in the most flavorful beer styles." The brewery was founded by owner Fred Karm in 2006. The dude looks like he means serious business, and he has been brewing specialty beers since 1994. Karm came up with the concept of Hoppin' Frog, and has designed and produced 21 award winning beers at the Great American Beer Festival and World Cup.

The bottle for the Frog's Hollow says this beer is brewed with pumpkin and spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and clove. The side of the bottle provides some mythology for today's beer: "There’s a place just south they call Frog’s Hollow, with cauldrons afire in Fall, and they only speak in whispers of the name. There’s a brewery they say who has the secret, of spices picked just right. With a crying shout, they’ll knock it out, and hand you this Frog’s delight." If you check out the Frog's Hollow page on the brewery website, you can get some more info on this beer. This beer is categorized as a "Double Pumpkin Ale," clocks in at 8.4% ABV, and packs 7.3 IBUs. Suggested food pairings including pumpkin pie, turkey, and Camembert or English Cheddar cheese. Let's glass this, and see how it stacks up.

 Frog’s Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale

The beer pours a lovely dark orange color, with a pinky's worth of bubbly, thin-fizzly, white head. The head doesn't hang around for very long, rapidly dissolving into a hazy cauldron effect. When held to bright light, the beer is a magnificent golden-orange color, and is slightly hazy, with lots of visible carbonation in the form of tiny bubbles.

The aroma on this beer is really nice. You can tell a lot of craft and love went into this beer, and that high quality ingredients were used. Not to keep picking on Shipyard's Pumpkinhead, but this beer is how I expect a spice-forward pumpkin beer to smell. I'm getting big cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and pumpkin spice, along with some clove. There's a slight hint of bready malt in this, some grainy sweetness with some fruitiness (maybe fruitiness from the yeast?), and some hints of booze. I'm getting some pie crust too.

Wow...this is quite nice. The taste really unfolds in layers, and 30 seconds after my first sip, I'm still finding some lingering booze and some malts. This is spice forward up front, but then you get a malty kick. I'm getting dominate pie crust and pumpkin pie spice in the middle. I'm tasting cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin pie crust. There's definitely straight up pumpkin in this, and pumpkin pie filling. The yeast profile is very clean, and imparts some Pale Ale-type fruitiness. I'm getting hints of grain, grapes, and apple. Maybe some vanilla.

This is a really good beer, and it's really well-balanced. The spices have "umpph" and depth, but they aren't overbearing. And the pumpkin pie crust notes are lovely. This beer could maybe benefit from more malt, but I don't know. This beer is medium-full, with a hint of sticky. Palate depth is okay, and complexity is good. Despite being fairly dense and sticky, this is heavily carbonated. Up front is clean yeast, spice, clove, cinnamon; the middle rolls into pie crust and lovely pumpkin pie filling, pumpkin spice, vanilla; the back end is lingering malt, fruity yeast, grain, grape, pumpkin, booze. This is warming and boozy, and really opens up as it warms up.

Rating: Divine Brew 

I gotta go with a Light Divine Brew. This beer sort of reminds me of a slightly less bready Pumking, with a little bit less corn (if we consider the 2012 Pumking). That's a good thing. This beer is crazy balanced, and everything works well together. You get some nice spice, nice malt density and pie crust in the middle, some lingering stickiness and sweetness, and some good flavors throughout. It's also relatively clean on the palate, and easy-drinking. I'd pair this with Pumpkin Pie, a stew, pumpkin cookies, or even chips and fondue with some football. I recommend checking this out if you can, this is good stuff.

Random Thought: "Get in the car," he said. She reluctantly got in, knowing that she would only have one chance to escape. She whispered, "just you wait, Pumpkinhead, my boyfriend will come." Pumpkinhead laughed, "hahaha! You fool! I will crush your boyfriend with overt soda-like spice, and one-dimensional flavors." And she knew it was over.