Midnight Sun Monks Mistress Dark Strong Ale

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottle. Colour - darn brown with red hues, cloudy, light brown cap about half an inch thick, nice lacing. Aroma - dark fruit, caramel, yeast, molasses. Mouthfeel - medium bodied, well carbonated. Flavour - sweet burnt malt notes, caramel, and fruit.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

All kinds of dark fruit, zesty yeast and mystery sweetness in this bad boy. Full bodied and flavored, complex and tasty. The only fault is its almost too sweet to drink more than a little, as it seems candy sugar and brown sugar are big players, but it's really nice in small quantities.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Dark fruits with raisins, licorice, clove and vanilla. A moderate roasted malt body to add some depth. Lively and heavy bodied, it's a belly warmer. Dark body with a thick frothy head and thick lacing.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

22oz bottle -

Aroma - dark fruit, rummy raisins, spices, brown sugar and nougat.

Appearance - dark brown/cherry wood like body with a huge 2" creamy head, nice retention.

Taste - lots of dark fruit/raisins in the flavor, brown sugar, a bit of woody bitterness, vanilla, toffee...nice.

Palate - medium/full bodied, slightly sticky, sweet finish with a bit of a zing from the alcohol

Overall - glad to see the Bay Area now stocking Midnight Sun products. Most of their line-up is solid, and this provides another beer to back up that claim. Very solid and quite enjoyable.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A big thanks to cquiroga for bringing this beer to the Woodshop tasting at Stuffed Sandwich in San Gabriel, CA. A very nice complexity of flavors: dark fruit, brown sugar, molasses makes this a very tasty beer. The aging in cabernet casks add a vinuous layer of complexity that is quite enjoyable.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Poured a dark plum color with a small, light tan head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of vanilla oak, raisins, caramel malts, chocolate, some nuts, tart cherries, and light alcohol as well. Taste of dried fruits, notably cherry skins, some more raisins, sweet caramel malt, and lots of vanilla oak. A nice vinuous character balances this brew out nicely.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 9

Pours an almost black brown with good clarity around the edges, but completely opaque for the most part. The head is light chocolate-milk foam, a thin layer that fades quickly. Wine is large in the aroma (but a rich, sweet port), under that is chocolate, brown sugar and raisins and toasted nuts with a dark stone fruit sweetness in the end. A slight hint of espresso adds to the complexity. The body is lightly carbonated, but not thin. At first, I thought the wine from the barrel was overdone in this, but as I sipped and the beer warmed, the more it grew on me and I began to pick up on the complexities of the beer itself. This one really grew on me and the score kept rising as I kept sipping (and I only had half of the bottle, so it wasn’t the alcohol talking.)

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Pours with a dark amber brown body topped by a thin to medium thick head with some lacing. It’s sweet, woody and malty with a nice bourbon note. Very nice. Full bodied, smooth and a touch dry.