Mikkeller 黑 / Black

Bottle. Rich and intense, lots of licoricey flavours, with some dark chocolate, heavily roasted malt. Tarry mouthfeel, with a lot of alcohol noticed in the finish. Packed full of flavour but perhaps a little OTT for me.

Rating number 1100! Bottle, aged 1 year. Thick deep black pour with a small brown head that slowly fights it’s way to the top. Deep aroma of roasted malt and grain, licorice, dark ripe fruit, espresso, dark chocolate, and of course alcohol. Flavor is huge, roasty and a bit sweet at times. Alcohol is big and always present, but wasn’t as bothersome as I was expecting. Full and creamy mouthfeel. I was a little scared, but I could drink this stuff WAY more often. Very good!

12.7oz bottle, best before 12/12/2017. Pours a pitch black body with a thin, dark brown head that really doesn’t qualify as a head, but leaves a lot of surface swirls and lacing on the glass. Very nice. Wow...intense aroma. First whiff is straight booze, but after the initial punch in the face, it smells quite nice. Abundance of extremely dark coffee. Lots of dark, bittersweet chocolate and roasted malts. Big and sweet caramels, licorice, piney hops, oranges, and dark fruits. Just an onslaught of aromas....and flavor! Initially a sweet booze clears the senses. Very sweet malts and lots of fruit at first. Big licorice and cane sugar sweetness with bold dark fruits and orangey citrus. Did I mention it was sweet? After the initial blitz of flavor, the sweetness grows even more! But to really mess with the palate, the darkest and blackest burnt coffee taste comes in during the middle. Its moderate to light and seems to be in the background of all the flavors, but the insanely dark coffee flavor is hard to ignore. Lots of dark, bittersweet chocolate accompanies the sweet maltiness and coffee. I can’t forget to mention the decisive hop bitterness balancing everything out. All of these flavors then combine into one elephantine finish. Its a log-jam and it seems like the flavors just continue to grow. After slowly drying, the flavors start to mellow and the aftertaste is mostly that insanely dark coffee with a nice amount of bitterness and a candy, malty, fruity booze flavor. The palate is medium to full, silky, and flat. Overall, I love over the top stouts like this. I can easily see why people hate these type of beers, but I think they’re remarkable. The booze is clearly evident, but never becomes too hot to handle. IMO, this is incredibly well balanced for such a complex creation. Woh...

Appearance: Pours a black, intimidating, perfectly still body, but, man, check out those legs! Smell: Scent of blackstrap molasses, prunes, and espresso reinforced by cutting whiffs of fusel alcohol. Taste: Sharp roasted malt taste with concentrated molasses, espresso, and an altogether jarring, wincing sweetness. Heavy pour of dark fruit liqueur. Caustic bitterness in the middle. A few drops of soy sauce. Plenty of hot reckless alcohol from beginning to end, particularly on the sweet, roasty finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Sans carbonation. Drinkability: This one is crude and unrefined, just as it was when I first had it nearly a year ago. I would certainly rather have a WWS, but that’s just me. Let’s set a tentative revisit date of, oh, let’s say 2018. Though, I’m starting to wonder if this one will actually improve.

Bottled. Beer is opaque, very dark brown/black. Head is initially large, light warm brown, frothy. Diminishes almost totally but lingers on and leaves smallish speck-islands of lace on the snifter. Aroma is a syrupy blast. Heavy note of hot alcohol and sticky malts (heavy notes of deeply roasted grain, espresso, chocolate syrup, jammy red fruits, lesser note of cookie.) Light resinous pine hop note and light miscellaneous note of wood. The flavor is candy sweet with a long, hot moderately sweet, light-growing-to-moderately bitter finish. Slight burn on the gums and the gullet. Filmy sweet aftertaste in the mouth with a lightly resinous retronasal return. The body is full, the texture is syrupy and the carbonation is soft/flat. Like a smash up between a Impy Stout and a Barley Wine. Interesting enough to taste, too jarring to drink.

Bottle at DØE gnf 2009. Black with a large light brown head. Aroma heavy malty (roasted, chocolate, orange, caramel) and hoppy (citrus). Flavor heavy sweet, then alcohol, then heavy bitter. Lots of alcohol, to much in my opinion.

A. Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol ! Malt, choc., dark fruits light hops and alcohol! App. Murky dark opaque brown. No head. Fl. Sweet, malts fades to lhot peppery alcohol and hop bitterness Amazingly hoppy finish with warming alcohol P. Full body, hot alcohol O. A imp. stout flavered liquor. Amazing that the malt and hops can stand up against the alcohol!

Walked by this several times, on several dates, before picking one up. Very dark, very thick, very warm, and very smooth. It is like taking a very good imperial stout and then concentrating it. Smoke and coffee, chocolate and malt, brandy and sugar. Would buy again more as a novelty.