Pluto - Belgian Style Golden Strong Ale
Midnight Sun Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks again, Bobby.

Pours a pale yellow color with a white head. A hint of lemon and citrus peel. Maybe some melon and other tart fruits. A nice fruity flavor and some excellent tartness. There’s a little grassy funkiness to it. Good melon and apple and lemon notes. Really nice. Light bodied with high carbonation.

 

 

Thanks Frank! Served in a Great North Brewers Guild tulip.

A - Slight gusher. Pours with a finger-plus of white foam that settles to a thin cap and thicker collar, with splotches of yeast. Lightly hazed golden straw body with tons of suspended sediment visible.

S - Brett, pineapple and tropical fruits, faint white wine, spicy oak, Belgian yeast, stone fruits, musty saison-like notes, and sweet pilsner malt backbone. Reminds me of better batches of Fantôme but with oak character. As it warms up there's maybe the faintest hint of alcohol, but it's not unexpected for a nearly 9% brew.

T - Taste is a nice mix of oak, tart green apples, light lemon, musty barn, stone fruits, vinous notes, some grassy character. It's quite good, and probably more of a 4.25.

M - Very dry and tannic, medium body, no obvious alcohol, slightly gritty carbonation but not harsh or lip-burning. Good for a Belgian Pale but could be a little spritzier as an American Wild Ale.

D - This stuff was very easy to drink. I wish they could make it again, but with Gabe gone that seems unlikely. I could drink this one all night, as it has some of the best wild ale flavors but none of the harsh acetobacter that other American brews are plagued with.

Thanks to AmericanBrew for sharing this bottle. Always excited to try a new beer from Midnight Sun. This is one I didn't think I would get to try.

The beer pours a yellow color with a white head. The aroma is heavy on the wheat and grassy hops, with some pepper mixed in. I also surprisingly get some licorice in the aroma which goes very well with the other aromas.

The flavor is more of the same. I get a lot of wheat and sugar, with some grass, oranges and lemons. The alcohol is very well hidden. I also get a little bit of brett character, but it is fairly faint.

Medium mouthfeel and low carbonation. A very nice Belgian Strong Ale.

Summer sunshine yellowish gold with a light sprinkling of fine yeast and Champagnesque carbonaton. The pillowy crown is brightest white and doesn't have the world's greatest surface topography. Small sheets of sea foam lace look good enough. Barrel-aging and bottle-conditioning can lead to just about anything where appearance is concerned.

The aroma is both powerful and wonderfully complex. The beer smells farmhouse funky, splendidly spicy and ripe golden fruity. Thankfully, Brettanomyces doesn't obliterate all else. Unfortunately, whatever 'French oak Chardonnay barrel' notes might have been present aren't appreciated.

Pluto tastes like its brewing manifest says it will. Classification is a toughie. The brewery calls it a Belgian-Style Golden Strong Ale. Saison works. As does Brett-accented BSPA. Whatever it is, Pluto is delicous beer of the sort that Midnight Sun is known for. These guys are crazy talented.

Pilsner malt contributes little flavor and only a modest amount of background sweetness. Styrian Goldings and Saaz hops add a pleasing bitterness (35 IBUs at start), as well as a lovely lemongrassiness. The heavy lifting, however, is done by the Brettanomyces and Belgian yeast.

Clove, cardamom and white pepper are perfectly complemented by a horse blanket funk that is especially well-mannered. Buttery pears and tangy apples add a delicious golden fruitiness. Oak-soaked Chardonnay still isn't rampant, but there's a definite white grape quality that contributes to overall complexity. The beer also has a gentle acidity that is nowhere near the raging reflux category.

The second pour adds yeasty blurriness and the third adds yeasty murkiness. Sorry, but that alone is worth a good score. Besides, the crown does not quit and lace continues to stick. If only the mouthfeel had been able to hang in there. It's a little bit light and the carbonation started out quasi-fizzy. Both have improved from the first few ounces.

Pluto was an ambitious undertaking, though that's nothing new for Midnight Sun Brewing. This bomber has held up remarkably well (mouthfeel excepted) and is a complex treat for anyone who loves BSPAs, tripels, saisons and wild ales. Planet or no planet... Pluto is out of this world. Thanks sprucetip.

22 oz. bottle courtesy of alaskajoe - many thanks to a great trader. I've been sitting on this one for a little while now, letting the Brett character mature a little, as I know I'll never be able to try this one again. Poured in to a cervoise.

Appearance: Pours a hazy golden body, or rather a gorgeously transparent golden body hazed by both a substantial amount of suspended yeast but also an absolute flurry of effervescence. The combination of the two together actually produces eddies and currents inside the body of this beer - it's actually turbulent, with swirls of yeast being lifted and tossed up, up, up before hitting the roof of the foamy head and being dispersed, deflected back down. The head is absolutely phenomenal, with the most notable aspect being that it does the whole "carbon snake" thing. That is, I poured the beer, stopping the head about a centimeter below the rim of the glass ... and it grew not only up to the rim up the glass, but then gradually proceeded to grow for an additional five minutes, maintaining the shape of the glass and growing like a giant Whitesnake a full finger above the rim before the edges slowly collapsed in to a mesa-like shape. It's immaculately creamy, fluffy, meringue-like in every sense of the word, with amazing retention and the ability to impart huge chunks and flecks and streams and stalactites and curtains of three-dimensional lace. Exceptional.

Aroma: Slightly muted, or at least less complex than the taste is. What is noticeable both from the initial pour (46 degrees or so) to room temperature (68 where I am) is the strongly acidic and vinous wine note, rich with light fruit sugars and oak. The Brett is marvelous though also muted, contributing a musty, rich, and earthy layer of heartiness. The underlying beer here is a bit of an afterthought, which is a disappointment - regardless of the quality of the add-ons, I do like to experience the beer in my beer, though here I get only a faint, pale honey sweetness. So a slight knock there.

Taste: Exceptionally balanced and quite complex. First, the base beer. Crisp Candi sugar is definitely present, as are a number of pale, simple Pilsner and more biscuity malts, particularly in the finish. Belgian yeast overtones - perfectly ripe bananas, cloves, and white pepper - compliment the Brett notes fantastically. These occupy the finish of the beer as well, and are characterized predominantly by a a medicinal phenolic presence and a moderate amount of farmhouse funk, though never before have I enjoyed that note as much as I'm enjoying it in this package. The predominant note upfront, however - as well as a contributing player throughout - is the slightly acidic, moderately vinous, and green estery quality contributed by the Chardonnay. These barrels must have been damn fresh, and they've leached quite a bit of wine and wine-like tannins and woody oak notes in to this beer, lending an airy fruity crispness and a that both fills in the gaps as well as accentuates the aforementioned notes. This one runs the gamut from crisp and light to rich and creamy, from fruity to robust to sweet to spicy. It's just an exceptionally well-rounded, intricate, and well-crafted flavor profile.

Mouthfeel: One of the softest and smoothest beers I've ever had the pleasure of trying. The huge showing of agitating effervescence that was evident in the appearance is so well-integrated in to the light, crisp body so as to render the mouthfeel on this one precisely in to precisely what you want from a Belgian - instant evaporation when it hits the tongue, resulting in an evenly whipped froth that fills your whole mouth. Even as the carbonation slowly, slowly begins to die down (and as it drops from a perfect 5.0 to a mere, lowly 4.5) and it loses *some* of its lift, it maintains its internal crispness and its milky, creamy evenness.

Drinkability: This is a marvelous beer. It's in fact one of the best beers I've ever had. At 8.7% abv, it's also far less alcoholic than many of the other "best beers I've ever had," and a whole bottle later I'm only mildly, pleasantly, and - indeed, given how great this beer is - ecstatically buzzed. Sure, there are a few knocks here, but I almost had to look for flaws in this beer at many points - very little jumped out at me. What pains me most is that I'll likely never be able to try this one again. Trade for now, if you can.

*UPDATE, next morning:* As I think about it a little more, I'm seeing a lot of similarities between this brew and the other truly amazing brew I've had thus far in 2010, Russian River's temptation. This one obviously isn't nearly as sour (if at all), and the only tartness here is contributed by the acidity and fruity notes of the wine. But they're both light, crisp, fruity golden ales with a mild Brett-qua-Brett addition, and they're both fantastic.

Bottle provided by fbm115 recently. Thanks Steve

A: Huge fluffy white head that looks like soap bubbles. The beer itself is golden but very cloudy. Lacing is decent and the head retention is very good.

S: I am surprised that this is listed as a Strong Pale because I was under the impression that it was a wild and i felt the brett was a pretty present note. Some rubber, some hay, some dirt, very barnyard. Also some mild cherry notes with some sweet belgian candied sugar

T: Very vinous. SOme nice white grape notes. Very dry with some sweet champagne notes and some wood oakiness. It reminded me of a blend of chardonnay and champagne.

M: Very very dry and acidic. There was no booze but it was very dry.

D: A glass or two is very nice but more than that I think would be too much

From notes. Golden, big loitering white head, active, yeast chunks, thick lacing. SMELL sweet tart candy leads, some mild bretty funk, fruity (bitter apple, strawberries, cherries), vaguely malty, bit of booze. Gets better throughout. TASTE Dryly tart, and bit of bret funk up front. Some sweet tart candy. Belgian yeast character increases during the sample. Malty backbone emerges in the middle but stays in the shadows, and the oak and wine from the barrel just barely discernable, adding some delicate complexity. Faint bitterness in the finish dovetails nicely with the ohter influences. The initial bite is incongruent with the smoothness of the rest of the experience. FEEL medium fiz and body, quite dry, modest warming, clean finish. Doesn't feel as big as it is. OVERALL Goes down easily. Very impressive appearance. Not innately attracted to the tartness, but learning to appreciate. The balancing of the many diverse inputs is impressive.

Pours a light golden straw with a silky white head. Excellent lacing and retention.

Nose has tart citrusy fruits, Brett, chardonnay, oak, candy malts and a touch of funk.

Taste is some what dull compared to the nose. Mostly caramel malt and tropical fruits, subtle white wine grapes, a mellow farmyard funk and some peppery yeast. The wild yeast and wine barrels just don't have the same potency they did in the aroma.

Medium body is crisp and refreshing. Drinks very nice for a beer of this size. Comes off a bit thick through the finish.

Perhaps some more age would add complexity and depth.