I had the pleasure of spending most of my Saturday down in Akron, OH at the small but rapidly growing Hoppin’ Frog brewery.  It’s located in a nondescript warehouse building off Route 224.  I was greeted at the door by owner/brewmaster Fred Karm and welcomed in like I was friend at his house.

Within minutes, I was sipping some test patches.  A particularly tasty Imperial Smoked Porter that Fred thought “needed more smoke flavor”.  I thought it was damn good on it’s own, but I’m no brewmaster.  Fred loves hops, heck it’s  how the brewery got it’s name.  His double IPA named Mean Manalishi is a bold 168+ IBU monster with six different hop varieties available at local stores here.  I was able to taste an “Extra Mean Manalishi” from a batch that had been dry hopped a bit too long.  It was over the top hops, but I still thought it was awesome even if it wasn’t particularity commercial.

The brewery is probably best known for taking the gold last year at the Great American Beer Festival in the coveted Imperial Stout category with Fred’s B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout.  If you haven’t tried this amazing stout, you should do whatever is necessary to acquire a bottle.  I noticed a few oak barrels at the entrance when I entered which Fred said were aging some limited edition barrel-aged B.O.R.I.S.  which I was able to sample from an earlier test run.   The barrel-aging added a whole new level of complexity to an already complex beer.  Simply amazing.  I was tempted to wheel one of the few barrels into may car!

I spent a total of 5 hours at the brewery chatting with Fred and watching him greet and share stories with happy customers.  He took the time to make everyone feel at home and you could tell brewing was his passion, not his job.  If you’re ever in Ohio, you need to make a trip to visit the brewery.  And if you ever see one of these great craft brews at your local store, buy one and enjoy the bold flavors of the Frog.

Hoppin’ Website
Hoppin’ Twitter:

Related posts:

1. Hoppin Frog – BORIS The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout Name: BORIS The Crusher Brewery: Hoppin’ Frog Overall Rating:...
2. On the Sixth Day of Beermas. . . On the Sixth Day of BeerMas, my Master Brewer St....
3. Lightning Brewery 3rd Anniversary Festival Recap source: lightningbrewery.com Lightning Brewery, of Poway, CA celebrated their third...

Tags: B.O.R.I.S. The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout, Brewery Review, Fred Karm, Hoppin Frog, Hoppin' Frog Brewery

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 10:05 am and is filed under Brewery Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.