Midnight Sun M

Barleywine Rating #200!

Pours a striking mahogany with thin tan head. The aroma is caramel covered graham cracker and black strap molasses as well as musty aged figs, dates and plums. It smells of smooth yum and is very inviting. The taste is smooth rich creamy goodness with aged minced raisins fully populating a thick slice of pumpernickel and then moving into sweet black strap molasses, creamy caramel and then rich smooth blended notes of prunes, figs and dates. It evens out into the finish a bit with soft notes of chocolate and burnt molasses. This tastes fantastic and doesn’t overwhelm with syrupiness by ending with a high degree of drinkabilty. In fact, I can see myself drinking a little of this every night.

pre-GABF. Big intoxicating alcohol nose. Still black beer. Aroma of soy and black midnight. Flavour of soy, thick taste, sweet delicious!!

Sample from a bottle at Logan’s pre-GABF party 2009. Pours black with an average, frothy, light brown head, somewhat diminishing with fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (caramel, toffee, nutty), light hop (herbs), average yeast (leather) with notes of raisin, date, port, and brown sugar. Full bodied, creamy texture, average carbonation, and an astringent finish. Long duration, heavy sweetness, light acidity and bitterness.

Consumed August 29, 2009. To date this has to be the most amazing beer I have ever had. The hype surrounding this beer is not what even made it, the beer is actually ridiculously good and so original and complex. Dark rich brown color with no head. Pours so thick and rich and just looks smooth. Aroma has chocolate, cream, molasses, cake and some rich dark candied fruit. Flavor is really complex. Rich dark chocolate and sundae syrup. Some alcohol warms you right up but isn’t overpowering at all. Some fruit jam and lots of sweetness finish this off. Awesome!

I want to start out with a huge thank you to hoppymeal for trading his only other bottle of M! Looks black or very dark brown from a distance, but when held to light has some very dark red colors to it. Excellent clarity on the beer. The head is tan colored and hangs around well leaving a decent lacing. Aroma jumps out of the glass with burnt sugar, molasses, sour cherries, mint, rum, bourbon, oak, plum, raisins, and Christmas cookies. Intense and complex smell, but everything smells so delicious. Taste is full of brown sugar, molasses, huge amount of caramel, cherries, bourbon, and vanilla. Mouthfeel is full, but so damn smooth, not cloying at all. Low carbonation and full body cause this to slide over the tongue delivering deliciousness to every taste bud possible. A beautiful beer to drink, I could sip on this beer all day, but sadly I don’t ever think I’ll see a bottle again. As much as I had built this beer up in my mind after finding out everything I could about it, I didn’t think it would be able to live up to what I believed it to be. Somehow, M knew my expectations and instead of breaking under the pressure, it stood strongly and proudly saying take it or leave it. Take it, I will. Simply M-mazing!

Huge thanks to hoppymeal, pepsican, badbeer, and iowaherkeye.Low carbonation. Really smooth finish. Lots of fruit. Moderately sweet. fig & currant. Nice caramel, chocolate, slight butterscotch. Plums. Finishes with lots of chocolate & caramel. Some burnt sugar.

Pours a reddish brown with a nice sized tan head. Aroma has a nice bit of chocolate, raisin, cherry, plums, old pears. Flavor was up front chocolate and caramel. Lots of sweet fruits are also dominate, mainly plums and cherries. It definitely has a light amount of sherry and cardboard oxidation that isn’t quite distracting yet, but I could see it getting in the way soon. A bit of bourbon, vanilla, bubblegum, and toffee round this one out. The mouthfeel and finish are damn near perfect. I always want to hate aged beer, but I can’t with this. Awesome.

Pour was very dark brown with a small tan head. The aroma was sugary chocolate, vanilla and oak. The body was medium to thick with low carbonation, which fit well. The taste was plenty of sweet chocolate with hints of port and raisins. Really good stuff.