Midnight Sun Arctic Rhino Coffee Porter

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

Bottle was a gusher! Had to stick in the freezer to keep things sane. Dark black to brown with a reasonable dense fine bubbled head. Nose is lighter with coffee (but that could be the cold serving temp, as it seemed stronger later on). Bright fruity clean chocolate. Lightly sweet. Thinner body without tons of carbonation coming through, surprising given this was a gusher. Sweeter coffee astringency. Not rich, easy drinking. Similar coffee flavor to Founders Breakfast stout, but not nearly so rich or creamy or chocolatey (thought there is some chocolate, a bit of creamy, a hint of richness.) A nice easy drinker. Lingering light coffee bitterness.

This seems an appropriate beer after roasting some coffee. A solid pour produces a three-finger thick, nicely browned, creamed chocolate colored head. The beer is quite black in appearance and when held up to the light only passes a hint of light (really, I mean this as it almost seems a trick of the light). This beer smells strongly of bitter black coffee, even as I was pouring the beer it was clear that this was a coffee infused beer. It is hard to get anything but coffee from the nose, perhaps a hint of sweet, dark malt and a bit of cocoa are noticeable towards the end if you really dig for it. The coffee notes can be a little harsh, though there is a bit of coffee complexity here.

A bit on the fizzy side, some vigorous swirling of my glass helps to mitigate this problem. This beer seems somewhat light bodied, I was expecting some richness to balance the coffee, but that might be a bit too much to expect from a 5% abv beer. In truth though the coffee notes in the flavor are not quite so dominant as in the nose, but they are still the dominant note in the flavor. The beer has some roast-derived bitterness to it and it finishes with a burnt acidity as well. This can really reminds me of drinking cold black coffee at times. There is a touch of malt sweetness here though that manage to accentuate a chocolate like flavor. The taste reminds me of thin, deeply roasted, cold black coffee and I can’t say that this is really all that exciting.

Not a bad beer, but it is a bit too coffee dominated (bitter, a touch acrid and acidic). A more rounded malt character, or less coffee would go a long way towards making this a balanced beer. That said if you are a die hard coffee person, then you might enjoy this a bit more than I did.

Purchased: Liquid Solutions

22 oz bomber pours a deep black with a huge tan head that fades at a medium pace. The aroma is hugely coffee and the flavor is big coffee and roasty malts. Quite a bit of carbonation and a bit of metallic mouth. Solid but I hoped for more.

22oz bottle. Real dark pour, not much light penetration. Lots of carbonation, didnt matter how careful I was, still poured a huge head. Lots of coffee aroma and roasted barley. The flavor is a little thin, slight coffee and a little chocolate. Ok beer

Bottle at home ... thanks to beer bill for this ... Deep black colour... huge foaming in glass ... hardly got any beer in in first pour ... drops to tan lacing ... roast malts little bitter coffee nose little sweetness ... over fizzy ... big roast malt ... good cofeee hit ... medium body ... massive overcarbonation

Pours dark, dark brown with very little light penetrating underneath a large tan head that hangs around for quite a while leaving very good lacing. The aroma is dominated by bitter roasted espresso and not much else. There The taste is slightly more complex than the aroma would suggest. There is bitter coffee still dominating but the sweetness of some milk chocolate comes through as well as more malts. The coffee bitterness is very evident (maybe a little too much) in the finish and lingers between sips. The mouthfeel is a tad on the thin side with lots of carbonation that enhances the coffee bitterness a bit. This is a decent beer but comes off a little too bitter with more of a burnt character than I prefer. One of the few Midnight Sun brews I wouldn’t categorize as excellent. Nonetheless a drinkable brew.

Bomber from the one and only JCB. Pours a completely pitch black with a 2 finger tan head and streaky lacing. Nose is burnt barley and roasted coffee beans. Taste is toasted malt, dark chocolate and espresso with a smoky flavor in the finish that gives way to a slight metallic flavor. Lighter mouth feel than I expected given the appearance, but still pretty creamy. Pretty decent offering. Thanks Big J!

Bottle from my buddy in Portland. Thanks. I have seen this one online when I was ordering, but I just never got around to buying it. Pours out a dark brown color with a tan head on it. There is some roasted smokey flavors in the nose, with a hint of coffee. Not really all that much going on there. The taste is sweet and smooth, pretty heavily carbonated. Almost like a watered down feeling on the mouthfeel. Not sure if I like that or not. It is good, but its not Arctic Devil good. Or Bezerker.