Midnight Sun Obliteration II

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

Bottle courtesy of Bu11zeye: Poured a clear golden color ale with a medium size foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of dry and citrusy hops is clearly dominating with some notes form floral hops but too subtle to make a real impact. Taste is also dominated by some dry and citrusy hops with a light malt profile. Good carbonation with an average body and no apparent alcohol. Nice experiment overall but not something I would wish to have on a regular basis.

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

This one poured a dark orange color. Some orange peels, tangerines, and lemons in the nose. Mainly lemons and oranges are showing up in the flavor with a hint of pine. This one has a nice malt backbone to it. The finish is rather bitter. Overall this was a nice IIPA.

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

A brilliantly clear, bright copper hued beer is topped by a frothy, slightly sticky, initially two-finger thick, pale tan colored head. The aroma is pungently hoppy; thick with sticky notes of sweet citrus and a sharp, dank, herbal component. The hop aromatics produce aromas of grapefruit zest, apricots, orange blossoms and tropical fruit as well as notes garlic chives (the Summit hops for sure), resinous pine, something akin to spicy sea urchin and a pungent, spicy hop reek. The malt clearly plays a supporting role here, but if you dig for it there are notes of soda crackers in the finish.

Lightly sweet tasting, but the resinous hop character almost completely engulfs any residual sweetness before you can notice it. Just before the hops take over one notices a soft, lightly caramelized malt sweetness. Gripping, bitingly bitter, with a tongue flagellating assault of over-the-top hop notes, the beer is clearly all about the hops. This is so astringently hoppy it is really almost harsh in character; if you are not a total hop head you will probably find this undrinkable. Somehow a toasty malt note is noticeable in the finish, it is wrapped up in and surrounded by scathing hop flavors, but does provide a softer, slightly calming influence in the onslaught of hop notes. The citrus / fruit hop flavors take a back seat here (most likely due to the lack of malt sweetness to carry them), but up front one can get hints of apricot, tart grapefruit and even a pungent citrus oil component noticeable throughout. Really the notes that are biggest are those similar to turpene-like herbal notes, garlic, green onions and a huge menthol like, resinous pine flavor that really sticks to the palate and lingers on in a really long, astringently bitter finish.

I am not sure I remember having a beer that is so unbalanced towards the hop side of the spectrum. Even for this hop head, this really needs substantially more malt sweetness to make this brew work. Not a horrible brew, but it is a bit too unbalanced for my palate & the typically harsh summit hops seem to dominate the mix a bit too much.