Midnight Sun Cohoho Imperial IPA

first, a big shout out to nhorween for his unsolicited beer gift mail order. this is the first beer in that package, so, nick, cheers. it’s also my first real rating in a couple months (non-festival, non-halfbsed). so i’m back in the game, and my target is beer-god status. bottle from liquid solutions. was on its side, but no sediment at the neck. bottle aroma is immediately hoppy of the pineapple grapefruit sort. as the nose accommodates some caramel malt comes forth. poured into a tripel karmeleit massive tulip, very little head, just a small ring of beige. color is cherry plum and crystal clear. aroma is much the same, kinda reminds me of i think alesmith winter yulesmith... i’ve missed hops, i’ve missed IPA’s. that’s the first thing i thought after tasting this. at fridge temperature, it’s fairly well balanced and mild in a good way. i’ve really grown to appreciate a sense of balanced mildness in DIPA’s with hops adding adjunct fruit flavors but not sharp bitterness. so this fits well. some sweetness sits on the tongue well into the finish without being cloying. alcohol completely hidden.

hops dominate the smell, with a dark clear red/brown color. Small/medium white head. body is surprsingly smooth and the hops only take over for the finish.

Pours dark amber from 22 oz bomber forming large off beige foamy head. Aroma of pine resins, creamy caramels, grapefruit, with a hop strong character. Flavour is smooth, pines, hops, grapefruit swrill around together. I must say my initial impression that this is a DIPA and barley wine hybrid. the beer is smooth and easy to drink, pine resins, caramel character come out and want to play. Pretty good beer.

Bottle: Deep and pure amber pour with a large, creamy beige head. Aroma is intense and swirls through the room with citrus and caramel sweetness. Upon a deeper sniff reveals the thick pine notes. Flavor is plentiful with malts, caramel, citrus, and earthiness. Bits of florals. Nice sweet bitters in the tail. Full bodied and very enjoyable.

Bomber from Liquid Solutions, came today, thought why crack it. Shared with my girlfriend Cyn. Porus a very dark amber/copper with a 1 finger tan head. Nose is sweet and hoppy, with a bit of the barleywine dipa feel. Taste is sweet, hoppy and full bodied. Its restrained on a number of levels, it feels like everything has been powerfully crammed into a little box and it unfolds some as you drink it. What I mean is there is a lot in this beer and its pretty well balanced, but IT restrains everything in some ways into a tight package. Feels much more like a East Coast DIPA to me, but more malty. Very very easy drinking.

3-2-08 bottle shared at tasting
Brown amber in color with a thick head. Smells exactly like white sage (you hippies know what I am talking about). Taste is a coarse dirty gritty woodsy flavor that is interesting. Texture is almost gritty as well. Overall, not too bad. I was expecting much more hops and was let down a little bit. (high points on smell for reminding me of my hippie youth)

Very dark brown amber with a nice tan head. Sugary malts mixed with piney, resin hops on the nose. Fresh, dancing pine hops with some grapefruit pith. Some sugar flavors near the end with a nice long bitter finish. Very nice DIPA that is easily drinkable.

Very solid barleywine. Nice golden/amber pour. Nose was slight bitter with hop, a little chocolate and a nice burnt caramel malt. Great drinker, a little dry.