Mikkeller Black Hole

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

On tap @ EBF 2008. Totally black body with a big brown head. Strong aroma of roasted malt and chocolate and some alcohol, actually surprisingly little alcohol in the aroma. Flavor is sweet like molasses at the first sip, but then the bitterness and alcohol make the perfect balance. It is just perfect balanced. Chocolate, coffee, liquorices, moderate roasted malt, dry fruit and warming alcohol. Delicious.

Roasty, acrid, coffeeish and a touch sour. Plummy, but not with the richness as in many of my favorite imperials. A good mix, but hot and thinning. It is a big beer all around and the flavors meld pretty well, but the alcohol is strong and detracting a bit. Aroma is a strong point; really nice coffee aromas.

Thanks to Kevin for the bottle!

375ml bottle, black dark color, with a tan-colored head, good roasted, black, chocolate malt nose, with some spicy liquorice, anise accents with some coffee, molasses, dark dried fruit notes of burnt raisns, plums, dates and a floral hop coniferous, pineniddle, resinous, grassy aroma follows through on a full-bodied palate with a yeasty, roasty, black, chocolate malt, flowery hop leafy, minty character, with some liquorice, molasses,brown sugar sweetness, black coffee flavors, and some coniferous, cedary, piney notes, leading towards a warming, liquorice, big roasty bitterness finish.

Pours deep black into a snifter. Mocha head slowly recedes to skim surface. Deep chocolate, espresso and alcohol aromas. Soy and espresso with a lasting alcohol finish.

Bottle at the Nashville BA tasting. Pours black with a wisp of a brown head. Aroma of molasses and licorice. Chewy mouthfeel. Flavor of molasses, brown sugar, anise, and a small hint of smoke countered by just enough bitterness to keep it in balance. This is on the sweet side, but I kind of like it that way. Good beer.

Bottled: Pours black, no head. Salty liquorice, chocolate and coffee on the nose. Rich mouth-feel. Flavour is roasted liquorice that somehow is sweet and salty at the same time. Very good and quite intense.

375ml from Sam’s, Durham. Very thick pour, completely opaque with nary a sliver of light visible through the darkness. Yes, the laws of space and time are suspended here. Unfortunately, the beer’s not quite up to snuff in this space either. The nose is somewhat rich, with some espresso notes (but alas, not too much) and a funky, vegetal character as well. I actually didn’t find the beer as boozy tasting as I’d expected. Some hop bitterness in there, along with at least a bit of coffee, but the overall effect is more mushy and burnt, a kind of indistinct harshness rather than a refined, purposive character of any sort. There’s no way this is a bad beer. But based on what I’ve had from Mikkeller previously, and also on hype/cost, this is a pretty big disappointment.

this is a hard beer to review. first it has a all the right components to for a perfect Imperial stout, but that where the faults is. the real problem is that the beer is too sweet. the cocoa and coffee is too over saturated with molasses that it makes it hard to drink. however the after coffee flavors is very good. still I think its worth a try.