Midnight Sun - Williams Brothers Brewing Company

BeerAdvocate

Massachusetts

4/5  rDev +1.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Review from BeerAdvocate Magazine Issue #45 (Oct 2010):

A Porter with a twist. Dense and rich-colored froth adorns the top of the dark-brown-leather-colored ale. Smells of muddled raisins, brown sugar and vague spicing from the hops and alcohol. Medium body. Dry toasted malt with hints of brown bread, touch of molasses and an even more faint charcoal and crystallized ginger flavor. Woody hops, kiss of ginger, nutty oats and a drying cocoa powder all in the dry finish. The small addition of ginger root works extremely well here. A versatile beer: sessionable, or an easy beer to pair with.

Serving type: bottle

01-21-2011 23:27:33 | More by BeerAdvocate

His_Royal_Hoppiness

United Kingdom (England)

4/5  rDev +1.8%

05-11-2013 23:24:33 | More by His_Royal_Hoppiness

Dethklok

New York

4/5  rDev +1.8%

05-07-2013 21:24:08 | More by Dethklok

jp312

Pennsylvania

3.75/5  rDev -4.6%

04-03-2013 22:41:04 | More by jp312

EFR94

Pennsylvania

4.25/5  rDev +8.1%

03-30-2013 23:30:10 | More by EFR94

mick303

Ontario (Canada)

4.13/5  rDev +5.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Poured into a shaker pint it is black in colour with a creamy tan hed of foam, shows really nice retention and excellent lacing and film.

Smell has some real solid roasty bready malt, coffee bean, and chocolate, some dark fruits, some melon character, soft bitterness, good balance.

Taste is a really nice coffee bean maltiness, a strong earthiness, woodiness and leafy forest, a bit of a damp hay note, some pepper on the finish. Lots of dark malt, but an excellent overall balance. The taste is pleasant round, quite a rich malty flavour with some nice intricacies. On the finish more dry soft coffee bitterness, dry and crisp.

Mouthfeel is moderate, roasty feel to it, soft refreshing carbonation. Full malty body, really smooth. Altogether very easy to drink with a nice refreshing crispness. Sessionable porter.

Really tasty and flavourful porter. A really solid example of the style with lots of nice rounded flavour and easy to drink. Not too imposing or bitter, and it actually has a pretty respectable complexity for being quite light. I would like to try it on cask.

Serving type: bottle

03-11-2013 22:35:17 | More by mick303

tbryan5

Louisiana

4.25/5  rDev +8.1%

03-02-2013 19:33:56 | More by tbryan5

samEBC

Belgium

3.75/5  rDev -4.6%

02-11-2013 20:11:59 | More by samEBC

Satyr179

Sweden

4/5  rDev +1.8%

02-01-2013 20:54:33 | More by Satyr179

Pelicanrocks

United Kingdom (England)

4.25/5  rDev +8.1%

01-27-2013 19:19:09 | More by Pelicanrocks

BILF

Israel

4.5/5  rDev +14.5%

01-14-2013 17:37:31 | More by BILF

LJWalker

Alabama

3/5  rDev -23.7%

01-02-2013 03:54:02 | More by LJWalker

kaneel

France

3.75/5  rDev -4.6%

12-28-2012 22:37:20 | More by kaneel

mdagnew

United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)

4/5  rDev +1.8%

12-27-2012 13:58:45 | More by mdagnew

obywan59

Virginia

4.23/5  rDev +7.6%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Very dark brown with a tan head. Rather thick looking.

Aroma of sweet dried plums with a hint of spice.

The taste is dryer than I prefer in my porters, but it is excellent nonetheless. A slightly woody molassas like taste predominates, and a tart citric quality, faint dark chocolate, and the bite of ginger round it out. Just the barest hint of sweetness.

Medium to medium-thick in body. Smoothness of oats is evident, with the ginger giving a nice bite on the tongue and some warmth in the throat. Somewhat drying.

Very nice, An easy drinker. I could have whizzed through a few more of these. I wish I had bought more. A welcome twist and change of pace from my usual porters.

Serving type: bottle

12-14-2012 06:00:33 | More by obywan59

Lemke10

Wisconsin

4.03/5  rDev +2.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

This pours a dark brown/black color with a light brown head. The scent is rich and robust with roasted malts, caramel malts, and coffee tones. The taste is bold but not quite as bold as what you get with stouts. The texture is smooth and reasonably light. There is a sweetness and cocoa flavor that is very prominent. It finishes with a slightly chalky after taste. Overall a pretty decent porter.

Serving type: bottle

11-21-2012 06:04:34 | More by Lemke10

brentk56

North Carolina

4/5  rDev +1.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Appearance: Pours a midnight brown color with a rather impressive head that leaves a few shards behind

Smell: Black bread, chocolate, caramel and winter spices

Taste: Lightly roasted malt, black bread, chocolate and caramel, up front, with the sweetness and winter spice flavors building in the middle; the earthy hops enable it to dry out toward the finish, but there is a lingering sweetness, nonetheless

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate carbonation

Overall: A little sweeter than I would like, this is still a nice Porter that adds some Winter Warmer elements, as another BA noted

Serving type: bottle

11-18-2012 23:34:40 | More by brentk56

Hanglow

United Kingdom (Scotland)

4/5  rDev +1.8%

11-01-2012 22:00:45 | More by Hanglow

Liquoric3

Germany

4.25/5  rDev +8.1%

10-14-2012 19:30:38 | More by Liquoric3

Polasiuss

Ireland

3.75/5  rDev -4.6%

10-09-2012 17:50:14 | More by Polasiuss

IPA35

Netherlands

4/5  rDev +1.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

A very dark brown beer with an off white, foamy head. Good retention.

A lightly roasted beer, dark fruits, earthy hops. Smells good.

This is a pleasant beer, a nice balanced sweet flavour coming from the malts with dark fruits. Swallowing this beer results in a bit of a chocolate/roast flavour. Finish is quite dry with hops.

A creamy mouthfeel with rather a low carbonation.

Overall, this is a very nice porter.

Serving type: bottle

08-20-2012 17:55:23 | More by IPA35

petluo

Finland

2.5/5  rDev -36.4%

08-11-2012 19:28:11 | More by petluo

PancakeMcWaffles

Germany

4.25/5  rDev +8.1%

08-06-2012 17:31:33 | More by PancakeMcWaffles

BedetheVenerable

Missouri

3.53/5  rDev -10.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Presentation: 500ml brown bottle with nice label; best by September 2012. Kudos to another British brewery who actually puts dates on their beer! Split this with my wife, as she's the one that picked this out to try.

Appearance: Dark brown, nearly black, with dark walnut highlights when held up to the light. Good-sized light tan head which shows good retention.

Smell: Dark fruit, cherries, a hint of dry dusty roast, and a hint of earthy yeast. Pleasant, if a bit mellow.

Taste: This is mostly about the dark fruit, with just a bit of roast on the finish. Earthy yeast and dark malt, along with juicy dark fruit and a bit of cherry. Hint of smoke on the finish.

Mouthfeel: Low carbonation, almost like an on-cask feel.

Conclusion: Don't remember how much this cost, but thinking it was $4-5. A solid, if not particularly standoutish, traditional English stout.

B (84)

Serving type: bottle

08-05-2012 01:42:06 | More by BedetheVenerable

Arno

4.03/5  rDev +2.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

appearance: Black with tan head. More foam than you'd expect from a porter. Good retention.

smell: Lighly roasted malts, black currant, nutty, coffee, bit smokey.

taste: It's quite well balanced with the usual porter flavors. Roasted, caramel, coffee, nutty. But this one finishes off with more of a dark fruits (black currant) with some spices. This makes it quite a unique flavor combo for me. It has some sort of bitterness and spice to it all the way through, where it's usually at the end where it kicks in. This makes it a very easy, tasteful and enjoyable drink.

mouthfeel: Medium bodie, creamy, quite soms carbonation for a stout/porter (which i like).

overall: It was actually ordered wrong. Ordered other beers. So i wasn't planning on drinking this, nor did i know about the existence. But as it turns out, this is a very lovely porter. I like the way it integrates the dark fruit flavor without dominating, giving it just that little more freshness and originality to it. Well done!

Serving type: bottle

08-04-2012 11:39:56 | More by Arno