Mikkeller Black Hole

Pours a med dense dark-chocolate brown, espresso tan "black hole" head and chestnut highlights. Aroma is dark fruit over dark roast malt, with evident alcohol and a little hops and coffee. Taste is bright but not abrasive hops over silky rich malt that is seriously set off by dry, winey dark roast coffee of decent quality, and a hoppy-chocolatey bitter finish. Feel is a little dry but rewardingly liqueur -like with fruits, chocolate and coffee impressions. Dryness hangs on the palate. I like the balance yet am astonished how desensitized I am to beers that present like complex wines, such as Black Hole does. Perhaps not an easy beer for some. Hole-y stout, I am in fact drinking this warm...

Let me put it this way: I couldn’t find anything wrong with this beer. It’s perfect. If you’re looking for a coffee stout, this is the one. Here’s where it differs from the masses of coffee stouts out there: 1) the coffee flavor is real, and just so intense. 2) there are other things going on besides the coffee. It’s expensive, but spend the money once, you won’t regret it.

12.7 oz bottle: appearance is pitch black with tan head, aroma of roasted malt, chocolate, coffee, and a hint of alcohol, flavor again chocolate and roasted malt but less coffee and almost no trace of alcohol. What a great beer,

Reviewed 7/8/2009 (bottle dated 02/07/13): Pours an extremely dark color body, maybe brown, with a tan brown colored head, very small. Strong sweet aroma, dark fruit, molasses. Enticing though, not offputting. Some coffee too, coffee grounds. Some bitterness from the coffee. Coffee taste, followed by some dark fruit, with a sweet coffee aftertaste. Not alcoholy, very tasty. Hides the alcohol extremely well. Somewhat of a dry aftertaste. Damn, this is good! Not a lot of variety of flavor, but this is really tasty. Sweet coffee and only a slight alcohol burn. Soft mouthfeel, somewhat thick tasting.

A black hole pour with very little head or lace. Aroma at first is boozy and chocolate. As it warms a tad it turns to a hint of chocolate as well. The flavor is a warm almost mediciny coffee flavor with a very nice bitter. It also comes through with a hint of fruitiness as well. A nice full bodiedness that because of the abv seems to thin as it warms. Overall a very good beer.

black with a beige hole. big coffee notes, chocolate, booze, kinda weird. tootsie roles. and coffee. sticky mouthfeel.

Original review date 3/7/008... Poured from bomber into BMS mug... Beautiful, oily-black pour. 3-finger, praline-colored head with root beer float consistency. Deep dark espresso body. Alcohol, malt and yeast present in abundance but does not provide unbalanced aroma. Taste has a root beer, alcohol and malt forefront with very austere, slate-like hoppiness. Alcohol becomes a bit of a hinderance as it warms. It’s a clean mouthfeel but is quite viscous. Definitely a sipper; as it warms it becomes tougher to drink because of the strong alcohol vapors.

12.7 oz into snifter. Synthetic cork... wack. Minimal to nonexistant pop with the cork. With a very agressve pour I managed to stir up a nice half inch creamy khaki head sitting above a black body. Aroma is nice - roasty, molasses, tobacco, smoke, dark chocolate - but a bit of sweet soy holds it back from being 8 or 9 on the aroma. The flavor is very smililar. Again, lots of good notes (same as aroma) but with too much soyish sweetness. To many dark malts here. Full bodied with minimal carbonation on the palate, but not as thick as the abv would suggest. Overall: this is a great example of when a brewery could have made a great beer but took it just a bit too far, crippling the whole thing. Not bad though. If you dig traditional european Old ales and soyish Imperial stouts (and I know there are plenty of you guys out there), you might very much enjoy this one.