Midnight Sun Sockeye Red IPA

Brewed by Midnight Sun Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Anchorage, Alaska USA

Bomber. 10/06 on label. Beer is hazy, medium-dark red-brown colored. Head is white, frothy, average-sized. Diminishes slowly into a clingy ring, seagulls of lacing and a mist on the surface.<P> The aroma is ballsy, but balanced. It’s malty with moderate notes of deeply toasted grain, caramel, biscuit; Hoppy with heavy notes of green leaves/floral/honeysuckle, resin/pine, moderate notes of orange and grapefruit oil and dried apricot; Yeasty with just a trace of dough and a hint of a plastic.<P> The flavor is heavily bitter (but not initially grippy), lightly-to-moderately sweet, lightly acidic with a long, moderately bitter, lightly sweet finish.<P> The body is medium, the texture is watery-velvety and the carbonation is lively.

Bottle (Oct ’06 bottling, apparently). Head is initially large, frothy, rocky, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is medium to dark amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, cookie), moderately hoppy (grapefruit, resin, flowers), with a note of black tea. Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately to heavily bitter. Medium body, velvety texture, lively carbonation, lightly astringent. Tasty stuff...clean bitterness, not too acidic/tongue-scraping, plenty of malt character, nicely balanced (very dry but not stark), and with that nice black tea character you sometimes get (e.g., Deschutes Cinder Cone). Doesn’t make me truly *excited*, but as American IPAs go, it’s way above the average.

22oz Bomber
A great flavor red IPA with a huge aroma of hops. Loved the malts and the coloring and the hops. From start to finish this was a great beer. Great IPA

22oz bomber - Reddish-amber color with substantial white head. Caramel with floral hops in the nose. Taste was a bit too caramelly and unbalanced. Hops definitely present, but this is nowhere near as well crafted as most quality IPAs. OK, but I was hoping for much better. Hopefully to CoHoHo is better.

Poured a clear golden-amber with a huge fluffy off white head. Smells of Cascade hops with a slight malty sweetness beneth. Hint of carmel at the begining but hops imidiatly step in and take over. The finish was bitter and piney. A very good IPA. Note. This was brewed for Utah with an AVB of 4.0 It’s stronger elswere.

Bottle: Reddish copper color with an off-white head and lots of sticky lacing. It has a sweet hop aroma with a great bitter flavor mainly of junipers. An all around good IPA. Thanks Jake65 for sharing this Alaskan treat.

Bottle pours a clear light mahogany with a full sandy colored head. Lots of blocky lacing. Aromoa is the requisite hoppy citrusy bite. Flavor is bitter light malts with a cardboardy papery bitter hop note. Medium feel and moderate carbonation. Decent balance. Thanks to Jake65 for this one.

22oz Bottle Pours out a dark amber. Topped with a nice off white head. Nice hop and pine aroma. To go with a great IPA tast. Thanks Jake65