XXX Black Double IPA
Midnight Sun Brewing Company in Anchorage, Alaska, United States 🇺🇸
IPA - Black / Cascadian Dark Regular|
Score
7.50
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8.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 8.5
Bottle from City Beer, consumed in a hotel room in SF in February 2014. (my first one from this brewery) Black with a creamy tan head. Nicely balanced with hops, grapefruit, roasted malt and some licorice. Smooth and nicely drinkable. An excellent Black IPA.
Tried
from Bottle
on 17 Feb 2014
at 06:22
7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 8
Overall 7
The appearance is a dark black colored body with a one and a half fingered white foamy head that dies within a half a minute. After several sips, thick lacing appears in some nice tan foaminess that ends up leaving some rings.
The smell has bitter coffee up front. She’s bitter and unpronounced (as in I’m not picking up what kind of hops are there) hops end up making some sort of appearance as they seem extremely faded if anything. Light chocolate comes in near the end.
The taste is mainly bitter yet an element of sweet chocolate does come in to help balance it. There is a light dry chocolate aftertaste and finish.
The palate is basically a light to medium, and actually shows a decent sessionable quality to it surprisingly enough. The carbonation comes across extremely smooth and showcases a wonderful smoothness shaping out the mouth.
Overall, for the most part this is a good beer, however the qualities of it seem to be closer to an American Porter to me. I’m pretty sure I’d have it again, and am hoping one of these days Midnight Sun will start putting bottling dates on their brews as I’m unsure how old this is.
The smell has bitter coffee up front. She’s bitter and unpronounced (as in I’m not picking up what kind of hops are there) hops end up making some sort of appearance as they seem extremely faded if anything. Light chocolate comes in near the end.
The taste is mainly bitter yet an element of sweet chocolate does come in to help balance it. There is a light dry chocolate aftertaste and finish.
The palate is basically a light to medium, and actually shows a decent sessionable quality to it surprisingly enough. The carbonation comes across extremely smooth and showcases a wonderful smoothness shaping out the mouth.
Overall, for the most part this is a good beer, however the qualities of it seem to be closer to an American Porter to me. I’m pretty sure I’d have it again, and am hoping one of these days Midnight Sun will start putting bottling dates on their brews as I’m unsure how old this is.
Tried
from Can
on 14 Feb 2014
at 17:33
7.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Draft @ City Beer, San Francisco, CA. Pours a black color with a longlasting tan head. Has a roasted malty hoppy bitter chocolate aroma. Roasted malty coffee chocolate flavor with piney hoppy bitter hints. Has a roasted malty chocolate hoppy bitter piney finish.
Tried
from Draft
on 04 Mar 2013
at 06:39
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 7.5
Tap. Pours opaque black with a small tan head. Aroma is light with notes of roasted malt, pine, perhaps coffee. Flavor is about the same, hop presence more through bitterness than specific aromatics. Kind of a hoppy porter with roasty and chocolate notes, but no real coffee. Full bodied, creamy mouth feel. Light , medium bitterness. nice beer on its own merits, not the best example of the style.
Tried
from Draft
on 22 Feb 2013
at 15:22
8.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 8
Deep dark brown coloured body with a deep amber/lighter brown bottom and a nice, two centimetre tall tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, toffee, earth, citrus and piney hops and a decent amount of caramel and alcohol. Medium to Full-bodied; Strong roasty malt with perhaps a touch of peat in the mix with a lot of deep earthy and piney hops that balance out the deep malt. Aftertaste shows a great complexity with the cereal and roasty malt battling out but in the end, losing to the deep earthy and citrusey hop flavour that is huge. Sweetness also fights it out with bitterness and alcohol but the bitterness prevails. Overall, a very well crafted and complex beer that shows very well - nice to have this one, as always from the last Frontier state. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from Brown Jug (Old Seward) in Anchorage, Alaska on 18-June-2011 sampled at home in Washington on 12-June-2012.
Tried
from Bottle
on 12 Jun 2012
at 22:49
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle: Poured a dirty black with reddish clearing hints to the edges. Aroma is edgy with hops filling the nose, yet loads of malts (chocolate, roast, caramel?). Taste is gritty with huge hops, sprinkles of chocolate and coffee keep it balanced along with malts. Very warming to the palate throughout.
Tried
from Bottle
on 10 May 2012
at 22:48
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Bottle from Grape Expectations, Anchorage. Deep, translucent brown/garnet body, thick beige head. Bitter nose with piny, leafy hops and chocolate. Bitter, leafy hops body with spruce needles backed by dark chocolate and coffee. Bitter finish with warming alcohol notes.
Tried
from Bottle
on 17 Jul 2011
at 13:24
7.9/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
on tap @Toronado-pours a retaining tight tan head with heavy lacing and black color. Aroma is chocolate-dark malt, some wood/pine. Taste is chocolate/cocoa/very roasty-dark malt, some wood/pine/spice hops. Drying finish.
Tried
from Draft
on 21 Jun 2011
at 07:04