Hoppin' Frog Brewery ~ Akron, Ohio

I remember RD talking about this brewery way back when. Haven't even had one of their beers yet!

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1680 E Waterloo Rd, Akron, OH 44306

Probably the last great find in beer I had during my 2+ years living in NE Ohio. For those looking for one great beer, I will hold up as perhaps my 1 great beer by category in the entire world, B.O.R.I.S the Crusher. Yes, the name is an acronym, as the format implies: Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout. The brewery produces a wide range of other products, but I will only focus on the original BORIS (not DORIS – the Double variant, nor Barrel-Aged Boris, nor any of their other line of products). To me this beer embodies everything one should expect in a great big stout beer (as opposed to a porter, black IPA, milk stout or any of the other varietals oft lumped together as ‘dark beer’). In my 10+ year history with this remarkable beverage, I’ve most often had it in bomber form, which means it is good to share (at 9.4 ABV). Also good for comparison. A friend of a friend was extolling the virtues of 3 Floyds’ annual release stout (Dark Lord) and mentioned that they had collected a vertical. I offered to do a blind tasting of their best Dark Lord against any old BORIS: we both picked BORIS over the Floyd. If you don’t like stout, don’t seek out this beer (it’s hard to find outside of Ohio, and very hard to find in Colorado). But if you are a stout fan, find it now and let me know if – like me – it immediately goes to your top stout, or even best in show as it did for me. 2 GABF gold medals at last count, many other awards from GABF, RateBeer and other agencies. First tried sometime in 2011, a single brewery / taproom visit 2015, last tasted sometime in 2019 (if memory serves) – and will seek out again next time in Ohio.

- Rude Dante review