XXX Black Double IPA

Tonight I’m enjoying a beer from Alaska.  I know I promised a beer that is near and dear to my heart and fear not! That beer is still coming here soon.  Back to the beer of the evening.  I bought this on a whim as we have been brewing a black IPA that is very good and I figured, “Let’s see what Midnight Sun Brewing Co. does to make this a double.”  Here’s my review for this beer.

XXX Black Double IPA

• Brewery: Midnight Sun Brewing Co.
• Type: Black DIPA (Double India Pale Ale)
• Serving Size: 22 oz. bottle. Enjoyed in a tulip glass
• ABV: 8.5%

This beer pours a pitch black almost like a stout, with a relatively small light tan head that soon dissipates.  When the head goes away, it leaves a film on the surface of the beer like most IPAs.  The nose is mildly hoppy with more chocolate and alcohol notes.  I kept finding myself looking in the nose for the bold hop aroma that this beer should contain.  However, each time I went looking, results were negative.  I was expecting more hop aroma from this one but we’ll see what happens in the taste.

Upon initial tasting, the beer has a strong coffee and chocolate taste.  Tongue feel feels like a weak stout and not an IPA, it sits heavily and leaves a fairly strong chocolate flavor on your tongue.  It’s not bad, but it’s not living up to being a double IPA in my book.  The malt is too pronounced and kills the hops.  I wasn’t expecting this to be so malt heavy.  A lot of black IPAs are built on a good malt backbone with generous hops to balance out the high gravity.  This beer seems to miss the boat so to speak.  It’s overly malty. It’s not bitter enough to balance the malt.  The alcohol harshness lingers on your taste buds before leaving you with chocolate notes.  I wish this was more bitter. I wish the malt was less pronounced as it kills the bitterness of whatever hop content is here.

Bottom Line:

This beer is so/so.  It’s not an F or a D because it’s drinkable but it’s a low to mid C.  It feels as though the beer wasn’t planned out and perfected before releasing it.  All in all, it feels very unbalanced and the overuse of malt to cover the high gravity is a sad miss.  Save yourself the time and money and go with something better like a Sublimely Self Righteous Ale from Stone.  It’s what this beer should have been like but missed this target completely.