Midnight Sun Kodiak Brown Ale

Brewed by Midnight Sun Brewing Company
Style: Brown Ale
Anchorage, Alaska USA

Mahagony colored, earthy malty nose with a subtle hint of coffee. Smooth earthy malt taste with some sweetness.

Deep dark brown in colour with a tan head that lasts for a long while. Aroma of bubble gum, caramel and some raisins-no nuts at all. Medium-bodied; Raisiny taste with nuts strong in the finish all with a nice spiceyness. Aftertaste shows lingering sugars with some slight pit fruit tastes. Overall, a decent brown, but that isn’t saying much. I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased at Whole Foods in Vienna, Virginia on 24-November-2004 on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Kind of a rubbery/metallic aroma with a few hints of brown sugar malt notes. Transparent garnet/mahogany color with a small fizzy quickly dissipating light tan head. Too carbonated for me. Has some sweet maltiness with hints of chocolate, but that rubbery taste persists. A tad thin-bodied. I’m not too much of a fan of this one.

While not the best brown ale I’ve ever had, I do have to say that I loved the overall experience. I loved how the light orang/brown color and slightlly aggressice nature of the aroma mimicked the label. Full Caramel aroma gave hints of chocolate and nuts. However, it was a bit watery in the mouth.

Most brown ales taste flat to me, regardless if they’re from tap or bottle (Screw cans!). Kodiak pretty much lived up to my expectations. Not much aroma, not much flavor... not much. It has a hazy brown color, not much head, not many bubbles. There’s a small whiff of caramel in the aroma. The taste... actually better than most. I had a Sam Smith’s recently, and that probably spoiled me for this event.

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Picked up a bomber at the brewery in Anchorage. Pours a very dark orange, almost brown, with a creamy off-white head. Aroma has some fresh lake water accents to it with a little bit of caramel. Flavor has some nutty accents of course with a little bit of caramel as well. A little bit of chocolate makes an appearance as well. Mouthfeel is just a tad thin, but it still a very good brown ale.

Psssht! This bomber opens with a bang and never quits fizzling out, spilling out of the lip of the bottle and onto the hardwood floor...i’m mopping it up, and it still hasn’t quit... dark, hazy, chestnut brown in color, smallish head, disappears immediately, departs into nothingness... Aroma, coca-cola , at first, then, some caramel, a touch of toffee, just the slightest bit nutty, very sweet stuff, almost bourbon-like, no, Southern comfort, that’s what I’m thinking of... Taste: smooth, easy, light, very simple, not too much in the body, and nothing left in the finish. Fruit is tasted in the flavor, cherry and berry, and a touch of grape, backed up by the still-huge carbonation, it tastes like a cherry coke! Really, the other bottles I’d had from these guys were so impressive, I expected more, but perhaps every brewery needs something innocuous, something bland and carefree for the less-demanding who dwell among us. so be it. Not my cuppa, though.

(12 oz bottle) Compared to other nut browns, this one has a fairly light malt flavor, though this helps the nuttiness stand out more; Mild to moderate bitterness is in line with the level of maltiness; Lightly sweet, but it also has a mildly sour citrusy flavor in the background, like that of an orange slice added to iced tea; Nice smoky finish; Medium bodied and tangy on the palate; The somewhat subdued nose has a lightly toasted maltiness for the most part; Ruddy brown color is more red than typical for the style, and it’s slightly cloudy; Light tan head has okay head retention, gradually fading to a thin sheen, leaving a few traces of fingery lacing on the glass; Overall, and easy drinking brown, pleasant enough, probably about average for the style