Midnight Sun Big Slick

Brewed by Midnight Sun Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Anchorage, Alaska USA

Appearance: Pours a dark ruby with a foamy 1/4 inch head. Aroma: Brown sugar, grapefruit, peach Taste: Dark, almost burnt sugar, peach cobler to start out. Finishes with some bitter resinous hops that lay on the middle of my tongue. Mouthfeel: Sticky. Overall: Big, bitter, and a bit sweet. I like this beer in it’s fresh form, as this bitterness balances out the sticky sweet.

Appearance: Pours out a quite clear, dark amber body with a smallish, off-white head. Smell: A sheer abundance of hops in the nose with sharp scents of juicy grapefruits (peels, pith, and all), pine, and resin vapors. Lesser, secondary notes of candyish, lightly caramelly malts and a teensy weensy hint of red currants. Taste: Initial flavor of candied, sugar-coated malts are very quickly supplanted by the strong hop character and bitterness within. With a caustic resinous quality and heady flavors of white grapefruit, citronella oil, and yellow pine, the hops then go on to deliver a big burst of bitterness. Small hint of berrylike fruitiness. Noticeable traces of booze, but, thankfully, nowhere near hot. Warming, longly bitter finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is just a tad oily. Drinkability: It’s fairly good, though, to me, it’s one of those DIPAs surreptitiously masquerading as a Barleywine with a greater prominence placed on the medley of hops more than anything else.

Bottle, big thanks to tpd975 for sharing. Poured a clear amber color with thin tan head. I never would have guessed this to be a barley wine the nose and flavor are quite DIPAish. Aroma is big citrus hops and some caramel. Medium bodied with a smooth mouth feel. Flavor is dominated by the hops which impart lots of grassy, piney, citrus notes. As it warms there is more of a sweet caramel malt presence which balances it out slightly. Very good but I’d call it a DIPA.

I’ve been looking forward to trying this since I first heard about it from tpd975. Thanks for sharing this yummy beast. It poured clear copper with amber core and thin tan head. The aroma has a smooth full pine, grapefruit and resiny bitter hoppy goodness with a sense of a sweet malty base. The taste is full on hoppy pine bitterness then moving into resiny hop notes. By midway a modest level of thick sweet maltiness comes to the surface to create a brief safe haven from the persistent pestilent hops. Very tasty hop heavy barleywine.

Pours deep orange. Nose is booze, resiney hops, sweet sweet caramel, grapefruit, lime, oranges, bitter peels. Flavor is big caramel, bitter citrus hops, marachino cherries. Fruits. Very very nice!

Date: August 29, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, Cellar Party
Appearance: clear dark red, wispy beige head, streaks of lace
Aroma: sweet and fruity aroma, caramel sweetness, lots of fruity character
Flavor: sweet and fruity flavor, drying earthyness leaves a growing bitterness, long bitter finish
Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Another great beer opened by JW77...Jon is the shit!! Hopalicious. Hops are everywhere. Springing from the glass right into your nose and all over your tongue. Spicy, floral, citrus...hops and more hops. And a nice little malt bill to offer some balance and sweetness. Well done.

Clear dark amber with a biege head. Big tropical fruit, grassy hop aromas. Medium body. Sharp and sweet toasted caramel flavors with floral hops. Long boozy, hoppy bitterness to finish. Have i lost my taste for big hoppy Barleywines? Hope not.