Midnight Sun T.R.E.A.T. Imperial Chocolate Pumpkin Porter

Brewed by Midnight Sun Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Anchorage, Alaska USA

Deep brown beer with a thick sticky brown head. The beer really does look incredible. Big rich sweet aroma. Lots of clove, allspice and nutmeg over a rich dark chocolatey roastiness. There is a bit of espresso powder in the nose as well. The flavour shows lots of spice as well as a fair bit of pumpkiny vegetal quality. There is a touch of light tartness on the back also that kind of cuts the sweetness. It’s a damn tasty brew… one of the highlights of the tasting.

Bottle #34 at Papsø’s blindtasting. Black coloured with a medium sized beige head. Sweet and roasted aroma of honey cake, spices and chocolate. Sweet and roasted flavour of spices and chocolate with otes of honey cake. Roasted and spicy finish.

Pours mostly dark. Aroma of pumpkin pie, crust, nutmeg, light roast, and light dark chocolate. Flavor is a big mix of stuff with astringent coffee, dark chocolate and pumpkin pie, but nothing seems to gell. Medium bodied, unremarkable texture. My numbers seem to rate better than my words somehow. Could be a great beer, but that’s where the oak aged version comes in.

This is such a weird, weird beer. The nose is pure pumpkin pie, nice and strong. The flavor, however, is chocolate chips - cheap, waxy chocolate chips - and pumpkin pie. I can’t say I’ve ever wanted chocolate chips in my pumpkin pie. Or that combo in my beer.

Bottle at PPRBSG09. Pours a dark brown with a small head. Aroma is dominated by spices--allspice, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg. Flavor of roasted malt, some sweet notes, and lots of the spices mentioned above. No real pumpkin flavor, just spices, but this is a solid beer. 8/4/8/4/15 (3.9/5)

Check my rating on the Oaked version for more detail--as they are very, very similar. Soft taste, one-dimensional flavor. Spices and mouthfeel are the highlight, but I wasn’t blown away by this at all.

Bottle: Near black pour with a dense khaki head. Spicy aroma, yet soft- toasted ginger, mild cardamom and evident clove (not a phenol). A bit over carbonated for the a Porter. Nice malt depth meshes well with the subtle spices. Chocolate, cinnamon, clove, vanilla- reminiscent of carrot cake. Some mild roast on the back. Nice, but lacking a creamy texture and not quite as complex as I expected. A bit hyped up for me.

Bottle. Aroma very spicy up front, cinnamon and nutmeg, maybe a bit of roasted malt back there, but strikingly spicy. Flavor gets a bit more interplay between the porter and all the spices, though still spice-dominated. I guess that makes sense since it’s a pumpkin beer, but I’d like more of the base beer to come through since they bothered to make it 7.8%.