Midnight Sun Sun of a Beak Review

What do you get when brewers from Alaska and Washington come together to make a one-of-a-kind beer? Sun of a Beak is that beer. It’s an Bourbon Barrel Aged Coconut Imperial Porter with so much complexity you just keep tasting more.

My bottle has been aged a few months past the two year mark. Yet, there’s so much life still in this beer!

Sun of a Beak pours nearly black with a foamy chocolate brown head. There’s a lot going on with the aroma. It’s sweet molasses, bitter chocolate, cherry, bourbon and alcohol.

It initially tastes of roasted malts and toasted coconut. Not the soft sweet kind of coconut, but the browned under the broiler kind. Next cocoa, bourbon, and oak come in, moving to a balanced sweetness with a touch of vanilla and cherry on the finish.

The actual ingredients of this beer are fascinating. The brewers used local birch syrup, molasses, toasted coconut, chocolate rye, wheat, and black and caramel malts, all aged in bourbon barrels.

The mouthfeel is smooth, with well-integrated carbonation. It’s 52 IBU and 8.3% ABV.

Sun of a Beak is a collaboration between Midnight Sun Brewing Company in Anchorage, Alaska and Black Raven Brewing of Redmond, Washington, thus, the name of the beer and the sun and raven’s beak on the label. Both breweries are award winning breweries and leaders in industry. Together they produced a unique and complex beer that goes far beyond any particular style. I hope you can find a bottle.

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    While it's difficult to picture Santa as a young man, he was once. He met the future Mrs. Claus one snowy night when she offered him a winter ale that she brewed herself. It was love at first sight - for both the Mrs. and her winter ales. With Santa's growing fame, his favorite brews became named after his favorite day - Christmas. Santa now travels the world each year to spread the joy that began in a stable in Bethlehem two millennia ago.

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