Hoppin' Frog (Akron, OH) - 8 OCT 2016

When life gives you lemons, sometimes you need to just accept and make lemonade.  Such was the case when I had to unexpectedly make the four hour drive from our home to Akron, OH.  After taking care of business, I decided to pay a visit to Hoppin' Frog Brewery and Tasting Room.  Located a few miles outside of town in an industrial park, the driveway gives way to a gravel parking lot and a large building housing the brewery and tasting room.

Atypical of almost all breweries, there is no visibility of the brewery from the tasting room.  In many ways, you'd never even know that you were in a brewery except for the extensive draft and bottle list, much larger than I've ever seen before. The list featured more than 20 house beers, a few guest taps, nearly 50 current bottled beers, and "Rare" bottles dating back to 2007.  The options were nearly infinite.

The tasting room is sparse, but still evokes a welcoming feeling.  The walls are mostly barren except for several large video screens displaying the digital draft list that are visible from almost any location and a single, lone guitar, the significance of which isn't clear.

They also had a small, but interesting menu.  I went with the pierogis (not realizing at the time that 8 OCT was National Pierogi Day).  I was instructed that these were authentic pierogis, made fresh by a Polish cook.

But there is no doubt that the Tasting Room is really about the beer, and most of them were huge.   The draft list went from a low of 6.9% ABV for the Caliente Pizza Collaboration beer at 6.9% to the recently released T.O.R.I.S the Tyrant - Triple Oatmeal Stout at 13.8%, one of the first beers to take advantage of the new Ohio beer laws.  Most came as either 5 or 8oz pours.  I would have loved to spend the whole day there sampling 7 variations of B.O.R.I.S. the Crusher - Oatmeal Imperial Stout (9.4%), 2 versions of D.O.R.I.S the Destroyer - Double Imperial Stout (10.4%), and T.O.R.I.S. However there would definitely be no driving after such a day.  Instead, I settled for two that I'd never heard of before.  Killa Vanilla Extraordinary IPA is like nothing I've had before.  The vanilla aroma and flavor is strong, but complements the hefty IPA well.  DareDevils Got Game is an Imperial Stout made in collaboration with Cigar City (who wouldn't want to try that) using with Italian black brewers licorice resulting in a beer that is more like an after dinner drink.  So good.  So much fun.