Mikkeller Barrel Aged Black as Coal

Formerly brewed at Mikkeller
Style: Imperial Stout
Copenhagen V, Denmark

250ml bottle bought at Ølbutikken, Copenhagen. Dark as black coal. Initial brownish head with round dimples. Smell of dark fruits and malt - the aroma could be described as dark grapefruit. Flavoured with dark fruits in gently interplay with sweet, milk chocolate sustained by underlying alcohol. Nice and lingering endnotes. Full bodied. Heavy stuff (shared with Finn, Tromsø 13.10.2008).

It’s pitch black with a huge, nougat colored, creamy and lasting head. The aroma has notes of roasted malt, fruity hops, oak and port wine. The mouthfeel is oily. The flavour has a light sweetness and a light, roasted bitterness and notes of dark fruits, oak, warming alcohol, hop pellets, a little ash, caramel, coffee and sweet licorice. The finish is very long with notes of coffee and a light, slightly dry bitterness. It’s a very complex and nice beer.

(On tap) Pours completely opaque black with a small light-brown head. Intensely sweet aroma of burned malt and dark sugars. Very full-bodied with hard roasted malts, sweet and sugary. Subdued bitterness but alcohol galore. Strangely salty and ashy. 120908

Chris O’s.Pours a rich deep black with a small tannish head. Aroma: ground coffee beans,burnt carbon on toast, some dark chocolate but not prominant. Flavour: Roasty, burnt, treacle almost too bitter and burnt with a light sweetness and coffee. Actually gutted as i luv mikkeller beers and not too hot on this one soz.

Bottle at chris_o’s pre beerexposed tasting. Alround rating: Hoppy slightly plasticy nose, incredibly roasty burnt tar like character, pritty overpowering bitterness. Not my deal.

Black with a small, light brown head. Aroma has coffee, licorice, hoppy and burned notes. Sweet and thick, with hops and alcohol in the flavour

Sampled at EBF08. Pitch black with a beige head. Roasted and sweet with milky chocolate aroma. Fruity, vinous and sweet flavour. Slightly sourish.

On tap at EBF 08. Black with a thin tan head. Some roast on aroma, but like Reakt says, not a huge aroma. Powdery coal dust aroma. Rather a nice flavour. Toffee treacle and coffee but quite light. It’s ok, but doesn’t stand out in the same way as some of the Mikkeller specials did.