Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
9% Abv bottle from the second week of January 2003. Pours a mocha brown with some darker browns, light hints of red and orange and everything between. Good beige head that sticks around and is quite fizzy. Aroma is of dry raisins, figs, and slight hints of coffee beans. Light, but good with a hint of hops as well. Flavor begins quite carbonated, yet I don’t see any sediment and it looks quite clear. Flavor has woodiness in it, hints of dark fruit and tons of dry raisin flavor, with a solid offering of belgian yeast. The flavor is good enough to style and reminds me of Rocheforte 10, but as I keep drinking, the flavor remains too dry, too filtered tasting and ultimately, never develops enough complexity/depth of malt. Finish is odd as well, too much bitter hops apparency detracts from the style, and it has a bit of an acidic bite to it. Lots of astringency, and just kind of lifeless feeling, like they’ve filtered all of the good stuff out. Medium body, with some thinning as it warms. Quite disappointed, perhaps the 8.2 version was much better, I think I have a bottle of that aging, and along with my 3 bottles of the 9 abv aging, I’m really hoping this stuff improves. Rerate. Tried another bottle, hoping for an improvement and there was. I actually saw traces of sediment, the flavor was less dry, some esters and malt. This bottle had some life in it, but I’m still not sold. Would like to see a lot less filtration, and a LOT MORE malt/yeast complexity.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Dark pour with a huge head, frothy and beige, good retention - extremely complex aroma, port, plums, caramel, brown sugar, chocolate - flavor contains much of the same - tastes like a good abbey dark should, but the chocolate seems to be the star of this show, all other flavors bow down to it and add their own notes to it - plums and other dark fruits - a touch of smoke makes this quite unique - a bit of an alcohol burn that will probably disappear with some age (my only real complaint) - good stuff.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9.5
Rich floral aroma, spice around the edges. Light caramel notes. Pure amber color with full fluffy and rocky beige head. Rich peppery and herbal hops in the palate. Tingly hop presence but coupled with a nicely smooth full malt palate. Caramelized malts dominate the middle with only a light bitterness in the finish. A general acidic earthiness skirts the sides of the tongue. This is my ideal IPA.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
2003 bottle. Pours a hearty red/orange/copper/brown/gold/amber, All jumbled together. Hazy, bottle conditioned. Small rich yellow-brown head. Lots of lacing. Good sweet pine resin, some citric alcohol notes. I didnt know what to make of this. Nowhere near as malty as most IIPAs. Malt is a very dry caramel, some toffee. Alcohol surprisingly apparent on finish. Very bitter hops throughout. Orange, bitter grapefruit. Aftertaste does not leave much flavor lingering on. Good, but not exceptional. Improved as it warmed to room temp.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Cloudy copper in color, with a slight white head - very inviting, flowery, perfume-like hop aroma - tastes is pretty "standard" for the style, and is nothing stand out - heavy citrus hop flavor, but it has that moderate malty sweetness to balance it out and help mask the alcohol (a traight expected for an IIPA) - good - not great, and certainly not worth dragging your ass to Alaska for - thank goodness for mail order. ps - great label, though.
Clarkvv (16523) reviewed Panty Peeler from Midnight Sun Brewing Company 22 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9
2003 bottle sampled 11/20/03 at Sunset Grille. The entire glass was head at first. Had to wait a while. Big and white, a very hazy straw yellow. Smells musty, with a hint of citrus (lemon mainly), has some honey in there and a good amount of peppery yeast. Quite appealing. Starts out with a light hops bitterness, there is some lemon and biscuit flavor as well. Tons of malt comes out, hint of banana, good amount of bubble gum and very sweet. All the while there is an earthy, almost mossy flavor on the back of the palate, almost rusty/coppery. Medium body with some wateriness. Big sweet fruit esters/malt flavors dominate, but give way towards finish which is slightly watery but also much more crisp. Lemon, hops, clove and a very nice peppery yeast. Strangely there is also a sweet vanilla flavor that is unmistakeable. Fuzzy texture, like angel food cake almost. carbonation is not a problem after it warms. The beer comes together well, would really like to try again, though I must admit to it being a bit too sweet, would actually appreciate if the alcohol came out more, it is shockingly well hidden.
2003 bottle 3/24/05 Downtown Liquors Trippel tasting. Even after almost two years, this thing still has a good two-finger head, creamy, with great retention. Not to mention the head has a light beige-yellow color that you do not see in most trippels. My previous rating is pretty on par with how I felt this time, though I will say that I don’t feel it was too sweet. Lightly creamy, good body, slight notes of perfume with the distinct Belgian yeast lingering in the background. Very complex, as remembered, with notes of pineapple, lemon, banana, vanilla, angel food cake, and even a musty, earthiness. Probably a deeper flavor profile, with more sweet caramels, peaches and darker malts than a traditional Belgian Trippel, but when a beer is this flavorful and well-made, I’m not one to take off points for going outside of style guidelines. Quite the contrary, this stuff is fantastic and was probably my favorite trippel at the tasting. How well it has aged certainly does not hurt my perception either.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Nut brown. Light bodied, dry and roasty. A good brown ale..................
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Dark orange with big solid head. Completely dominated by cascade hops, but not over the top bitter. Tasty.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 4 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5
Golden coloured and clear. Somewhat fruity, but not much wheat flavour......
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4.5
Mildish flavour; some toffee. Rather light, especially for frozen Alaska...