Midnight Sun Arctic Devil Barley Wine

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

On tap at the Toronado Barleywine fest on valentine’s day. Deep, dark brown pour with a small beige head. Roasty aroma of malt and some bourbon barrel funk. Nice balance between a roasted malt flavor, a bourbon and port burn and some hops in the background. Very tasty barleywine, too bad that at 15 bucks a bomber here in Eugene I’ll never bring myself to buy it.

On tap at Toronado for Barleywine fest ’09. Nice one. Dark brown color with a beige head. Aroma is sweet malt, roasted malt, bourbon, and barrel notes. Flavor is sweet malt, roastiness, bourbon, citrusy hops, alcohol, and port. Bitterness on the finish. Fairly full body and a little syrupy.

Pours dark brown with small off-white head. Very sweet nose with faint roast. Flavor is sweet, a ton of bourbon and wood. This thing taste like a whiskey with simple syrup. Body is thick with sweetness and yes, you can tell it has a lot of alcohol. Great BW, but you might want to share it.

Tasting at the Great Alaska Beer & Barleywine festival. Dark brown with a faint white head. Aroma of sweet fruity, caramel. Considering this beer is over 14% abv, it does not have an alcohol-dominated taste.

Think BCS with some JW Lees malt rounding it out. Dark brown, small white head quickly leaves behind ample lacing. Nose is sweet with chocolate, wood, whisky, and hints of hop citrus and alcohol. Flavor is similar, even sweeter and with more malt dominance, finishing somewhat smokey and with more bitterness than is present anywhere else in the beer. Overall tasty stuff, just a bit too sweet and straightforward, though it’s quite unique among the barley wines I’ve had.

2008 release; Sampled January 2009
Served at around 60°F / 15.6°C. The beer pours into my 25cl tulip glass with a three-finger thick, amber tinged, full tan colored head. The beer is a dark, concentrated amber color that shows a brilliantly clear, deep cranberry hue when held up to the light. The aroma first hits with sticky hop aromatics but is soon backed by a solid malt note. Up front there are notes of grapefruit zest and pine needles, but the sticky, candied malt character seems to slowly win out over the hop character. Malt aromatics of brown-sugar crusted raisins, toasted-toffee-glazed pastries, perhaps a hint of cherry notes and a light, toasted nut note that because of the sweet malt reminds me of candied nuts. The hop character is never totally subsumed by the malt, it seems to add a sort of green, sort of herbal vegetation type thing to the nose.

Very sweet and rich feeling, up front there is a solid herbal hop note as well as a reasonable bitterness in the finish, but this beer is really about the malt. Rich notes of toffee, brown sugar and a touch of cocoa along with a deep, toasted malt note make this quite the chewy beer. The finish has a bit of warm alcohol to it that along with the sweet malts reminds me a bit of a dark rum; the alcohol warmth is brought out by some spicy oak notes and there also seems to be a touch of vanillin noticeable underneath the sweet malt. There is a touch of toasted, not quite roasted grain here, it adds a touch of almost bitterness that couples with the astringency from the tannic oak, both of which provide some balance to the dominant sweet malt.

After noticing the oak in the flavor, I can now pick it up in the aroma; it adds a soft spiciness and probably exacerbates the green hop notes a bit as well. The hop character though seems to completely fade into the background after this has breathed for a bit; much of the sharp, un-integrated character was likely from the barrel, and it still is a bit jarring. Somehow, despite not being the most well integrated beer, this just oozes potential. Part of the charm of this beer for me is the fact that I can just see this aging so well.

I am disappointed in myself for not getting two bottles of this. The hop character in this fresh example are really a distraction, despite how slight they are (though they are magnified a bit by the sharp oak character), I want this beer to be all about the malt and I have the feeling that a bit of age will make this beer fantastic; the hops, and even the oak character should round out considerably and the beer should turn into heaven in a glass.

Bomber courtesy of Sparky27. Powerful whiskey alohol hits the nose and will clear anyone with congestion. Also some wooden barrel and caramel and barley aromas on the nose. Dirty brown body with thin head. Flavor well the alcohol torches the palate but it calms down with good caramel malty finish. This is a beast, need an aprin before bedtime and sticky bready aftertaste. Thanks Eric.

Crushed with Jakebra and Honkeybra. This is a excellent barley wine. Sexy fruity nose with some brandy in there. Very nice. Flavor knocks the shit out of me. Excellent. Absolutely top notch.