Midnight Sun Gluttony Triple IPA

Formerly brewed at Midnight Sun Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Anchorage, Alaska USA

Draft glass at Cafe Amsterdam. Dark, rusty orange with a solid and sticky top. The aroma is massive -- earthy, thick and viscuously hoppy. For a beer listed at 200 IBUs, this is incredibly easy to drink ... albeit full of pleasant hop bite and a murkily-thick malt powerhouse. Outstanding. (#3303, 1/20/2008)

Date: 05/03/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting

clear golden, frothy off white head, sweet caramel malt aroma with earthy and piney hops, lots of tart bitter flavor, touch of caramel malts tries to add balance but can’t compete with the hops, the bitterness turns your mouth into a puckering desert,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 6/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

Bomber drunk on 7/8/07
Pale-golden body with a bit of bright copper tints and a very frothy, large, slow-to-recede white head that provides ample lacing. High clarity and countless streams of tiny bubbles rising.
A lot more melon than I was expecting, not that that’s a bad thing, with bold pine resin and white grapefruit bitterness rounding it out. Definitely some crude yeast and hop stink, however, though that’s almost inevitable at this level. Malts are soft, quite deep and help make this bearable in the nose, without adding too much sweetness. Fruitiness perks up somewhat, as it warms, which is a nice suggestion, adding cherries, magoes and such. Alcohol warmth is perceived, with a bit of a perfumey bite to it on the finish, but it’s nothing overly disruptive. Medium-high strength of aroma.
I guess the idea was to make this huge and over-the-top, so you can’t really fault the brewer for producing, what I feel, is a beer that would be certainly much better with about 2/3 the alcohol and hop bitterness, but it still makes for quite a fatigued palate by the finish. Pine and heavy grapefruit, with some floral suggestions and light peach-mango. Very expansive, yet tight carbonation gives it a creamy mouthfeel and soft, supple malts further aid the texture. Hop acids begin to burn, on the finish, and it gets estery and very dry/nearly-astringent. But for the crude yeastiness and overly bitter, grapefruit/pine dominant hoppiness, it’s a pretty strong success for this abv and IBU content. As always, though, beers like this seem more a novelty/challenge for the brewer than a true attempt at something really well-made. Man, Ernest would absolutely hate this beer!

Thanks to hopdog for sharing this... Appears a transparent amber toned gold with a small white cap that fades into a mild, foamy film. Streaky lacing is left around the glass. Smell is of huge grapefruit, sugary orange peel, vanilla cream, and sugar filled malt. Taste is of the mentioned aromas with bitter candy oranges standing out making for a ballsy DIPA. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, bitter as hell, and IMHO, in need of some more balance. It’s just too skewed towards the bitterness.

Bottle. Thanks to hopdog for sharing the bottle. Pours a golden maber body with thin head and some floaters. Aroma is of nnice citrus, grapefruit, sweaty. Taste is bitter, citrus hops, light sweet malt. This was an assault of hops on the tongue. Nicely done.

22oz bottle acquired in trade with puzzl (thanks!). Poured a medium orange/amber color with an averaged sized off white head. Initial pour was crystal clear with the subsequent pours clouding and included floaters. Aromas of melons, citrus, pine, and caramel. Tastes of citrus, lots of grapefruit, pine, and just a trace of caramel. This one was one hop bomb (which is not a bad thing for me). Nicely bitter with a very light malt balance. Light alcohol in the finish but not giving way that it was 10+%.

Poured a hazy, amber color with a small, off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of floral hops, pine, caramel malts, apricot, tobacco, and orange. Taste was super bitter, grapefruit, wood, light resiny pine, spicy tobacco, with faint caramel, and medium alcohol.

Thanks to hopdog. Pours a translucent golden amber with a medium bubbly off white head that left some lacing. Aroma of orange, caramel malt, various other fruits, some pineapple. Flavor of citrus, pine, grapefruit, lots of hop bitterness with a decent balance of caramel malt. Bitterness really lingers.