{"id":2258,"date":"2010-12-23T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=2258"},"modified":"2018-02-06T14:25:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T20:25:41","slug":"review-three-floyds-alpha-klaus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-three-floyds-alpha-klaus\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;12 Beers of Christmas&#8221; Review: Three Floyds Alpha Klaus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three Floyds says:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;Alpha Klaus is Alpha King\u2019s festive cousin. A big American Christmas Porter brewed with English chocolate malt, Mexican sugar and of course, tons of strange American hops. Cheers!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2259 size-full\" title=\"3floydsalpha\" src=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/3floydsalpha.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"336\" height=\"448\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Three Floyds Alpha Klaus<br \/>\nPorter, 6% ABV<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrew: <\/strong>Last summer, while attending a party at Ryan\u2019s place, I walked away from a bottle of beer while I made a quick trip to the restroom. Little did I know, while I was gone, someone dropped a cigarette butt into bottle \u00a0thinking it was empty. Upon my return, I eagerly took a swig of my beer and tasted nothing but cigarette ash. That\u2019s how I felt drinking the Alpha Klaus&#8230;like the combination of an ash tray with the bottom of a charcoal grill.<\/p>\n<p>Harsh? Maybe. True? Absolutely.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The beer poured very dark with a big tan head that dissipated quickly. The nose offered notes of hops, spices, chocolate and what can best be described as the smell of something burning.<\/p>\n<p>And then I tasted it\u2026ash tray. Sure, I got some hops, coffee and chocolate but it was all over powered by a dry, smokey, ashy flavor.<\/p>\n<p>During our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/tag\/12-beers-of-christmas\/\">12 Beers of Christmas<\/a> tasting, this was by far my least favorite of the twelve, and because of that I really struggled to finish it.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, I didn\u2019t want to finish this beer\u2026I probably shouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Karl: <\/strong>guess I wasn\u2019t really in a mood for hoppy beers this Xmas-beer-tasting night, because as I go back over my notes I see that I wasn\u2019t huge on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/2010\/12\/16\/review-sierra-nevada-celebration-ale-2010\/\">Celebration<\/a>, and now I have to go and shovel coal on the Alpha Klaus as well. \u00a0This was a huge IPA on the tail of the Jolly Pumpkin, and maybe my palate was still having its ass kicked, but the Alpha Klaus didn\u2019t do much for me.<\/p>\n<p>I counted three notes to this beer: \u00a0One, hops. \u00a0Two, roast. Three, dry. \u00a0This beer is all crazy amounts of hops on the nose and then you suck deep off the top of that beer, you get a big whiff of chocolate. \u00a0I actually loved the smell of this beer &#8211; you have to dig deep to get past the pine and when you do, it\u2019s like you\u2019ve earned that sweet dark chocolate scent.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond that, there was a certain smokiness to this beer that got in the way for me. \u00a0Almost like a cigarette or cigar over-roast to the malts that affected the flavor but it was just all hops and burnt roast and another dry finish. \u00a0When it comes to seasonal brews, Robert The Bruce will suffice for my Three Floyds fix.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ryan:<\/strong> I think we&#8217;re all in agreement on this one.\u00a0 There was a certain overpowering smokiness to this beer that just didn&#8217;t do it for us.\u00a0 Funny thing is my wife, who has yet to find a porter our stout that she likes, fell in love with this on tap the night after us Guys did our tasting.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n<p>Karl is right, there is nothing but pine needles, pine cones and tree sap in the nose.\u00a0 It&#8217;s almost like all those loose needles that Charlie Brown shook off that pathetic Christmas tree wound up in the brew kettle.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2311 size-full\" title=\"Charlie-Brown-tree-m\" src=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Charlie-Brown-tree-m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"262\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And, yes, there is some chocolate in the nose too but you&#8217;ve got to get waaaay in there to find it.\u00a0 When you first take a sip this starts out as a pretty good beer.\u00a0 You get big rushes of burnt chocolate, the aforementioned pine needles and hops followed by a surge of coffee.\u00a0 But the finish is where the smokey, ashy and unpleasant burntness comes in to the picture.<\/p>\n<p>There are some redeeming qualities to this beer; the rich chocolate in the nose, the abusive rush of coffee and the warming vanilla that comes as this beer gets closer to room temperature.\u00a0 But all that is voided by overpowering smokiness.\u00a0 Frankly, this beer should probably come garnished with a charcoal briquette.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intensely hopped with a robust roastiness, Three Floyds Alpha Klaus is in a class by itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[335,101],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three Floyds Alpha Klaus Review | Guys Drinking Beer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Intensely hopped with a robust roastiness, Three Floyds Alpha Klaus is in a class by itself.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-three-floyds-alpha-klaus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Floyds Alpha Klaus Review | Guys Drinking Beer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Intensely hopped with a robust roastiness, Three Floyds Alpha Klaus is in a class by itself.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-three-floyds-alpha-klaus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Guys Drinking Beer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/guysdrinkingbeer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/guysdrinkingbeer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-23T15:00:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-06T20:25:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/3floydsalpha.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"448\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Guys\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/guysdrinkinbeer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@guysdrinkinbeer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Guys\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-three-floyds-alpha-klaus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-three-floyds-alpha-klaus\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Guys\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/#\/schema\/person\/392cb666ebbfce027d38333ec37de736\"},\"headline\":\"&#8220;12 Beers of Christmas&#8221; 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