Mikkeller 黑 / Black

Mikkeller
Brewed at De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Imperial Stout
Copenhagen V, Denmark

Had at the Seattle International Beer festival. Pours very dark black with dark brown fizz film that lasts. Aroma dark chocolate, burbon, licorice. Huge alcohol presence that burns considerably for first 2-3oz of drink. Mellows as you drink so you can begin to taste sweet chocolate beginning, but alcohol dominates this one. Needs more balance.

Dark brown color with a rich looking, tight bubbled, glossy tan head. Fairly mild aromas, with husk and grain adding sweetness. Light grapefruit, mild light fruit, hints of roasted malt and coffee all seems to be hanging around, but nothing comes out and takes over the nose. It does seem to have a mild "green" scent. My first thought after sipping is... OK who handed me the creosote and tar infused coal. Certainly strong and foreboding flavors. A little more dissection is required. Very sweet start, with brown sugar, maple sap, and caramelized simple sugar. This is beyond WWS in many aspects. I started to think about a side by side, but then realized that I do have to work tomorrow and want to sleep vs. pass-out tonight. Only a few ounces in and my throat, stomach and head are all starting to warm up. Slick and lightly oily on the tongue. At this point in time this is far to young. I can see some potential. Middle has roasted and burnt malt, light grapefruit acidity, some berries and dark chocolate. Finish returns to the sweetness and sugary side. Light caramel and alcohol. Linger is long and bitter. I’m catching hops, tar, black malt, roasted malt, burnt coffee, charred wood and a few other things that are black, burnt and otherwise living up to the name bestowed upon this one. I will share one more bottle of this at some point in the next few months, otherwise any other bottles I may accumulate will need a few years.

Bottle. Blackish beer with reddish highlights and a brown head. Malty, light roasty, light boozy aroma with some chocolate. Chocolate, roast flavor with sweet malt and big alcohol notes. Medium-plus bodied. Lingering sweet malt, roast, big alcohol.

Drunk to celebrate my beer rating number 10,000 (yes, it is rating number 10,243, but that number includes ciders, perries, meads, and sakes). A pitch black beer with a thick very dark brown head - the darkest brown head I ever remember seeing. The aroma is quite powerful - at first you are hit by notes of alcohol, dark bitter chocolate, hard roasted malt, and dextrose, but also a lighter note of oranges. Tasting it makes me go crazy! I don’t know what to think or which tastebuds to believe - there is so many crazy things going on. At first it is normally sweet, but then the sweetness just continues to grow in intensity getting more and more like dextrose - and getting totally out of hand, but besides the sweetness there are strong notes of hard roasted malt, dark bitter dessert chocolate, soy sauce, caramel, oranges, and grapefruity and citrusy hoppy notes towards the end. And building on top of the crazy sweetness and the extremely powerful and complex flavors the alcohol is also building momentum - to top at a totally crazy level, where it together with the sweetness fries the tongue and palate, and together with the hops makes the very late finish very bitter. I must admit that the flavor is over the top for me - I hope cellaring well take the top of the extreme sweetness - so I’ll be back in a year or two. I get warm ears from drinking this...

Black in body with tan coloured head and alcoholic legs. Huge aroma of alcohol then dried fruit then loads of sugar. Taste was a touch hot at first, dried fruit again and sugar, not too complex, drank ok - slowly.

DLD ’08: Bottle shared by sprinkle and some other guy: Poured an oily black with a tan head. Aroma, boozy notes, dark chocolate, roasted malts. Flavor, rich and sweet, some heat from the alcohol, dark chocolate, big bitter notes from the dark chocolate, very roasty, also pretty damn hot. Would really like to see how it mellows with time. I could see it being quite good with time.

Harrys bottle, shared with HogTownHarry and Blankboy. App: Black as satans fillings (I have used that before!) with a pancake mix appearance head. Aroma: Alcohol and coffee and spiced rum/honey rum. Flavour: Burnt alcohol, plant fibres, bitter as hell, long alcoholic coffee finish. Interesting.

0.375 l bottle. Pitch black with small brown head. Sweet very burnt aroma with notes of charcoal, rum, licorice, soya sauce, alcohol and solvent. Thick bittersweet flavor infused with charcoal , dark sugar, rum and burning alcohol. Hard to drink, hard to rate. To my mind, this kind of beers should be aged at least a year.