Mikkeller Black Hole

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

Bottle. The new batch (still got one bottle left of the old and a backlog rating somewhere). Black, brown head. Coffee, licorice, hopscotch and some chocolate in aroma. Flavour is packed with notes of burnt malts, coffee and licorice along with a good dosage of bitter hops. This is great! This is gonna be a short rating, coz I just wanna savour this baby instead of typing. Excited to see how it compares to the original, when I dig up my notes or try them up against one another.

Pours black with some amber highlights and brown head. Aroma of chocolate, dark fruit, vanilla, some nuttiness, and some coffee. Alcohol present. Flavor of chocolate, abundant citrus hoppiness, coffee, some nuttiness, and alcohol. Palate is thick with a dry finish. Superb.

(Bottle, thanks Marsiblursi!) Black color, tan head. Sweet, roasted and hoppy scent. Strong roasted sweet licorice taste, also rubber. First taste almost overwhelms, in a good way. Rich mouthfeel, high bitterenss.

Pitch black with creamy lasting brown head. Smooth & filling, oily palate. roast coffee, chocolate, power hoppy in both aroma & taste. At the same time so pleasant & easy drinkable. Only light alcohol notes & warmth. Long end... World class....

The body is BLACK and only the very edge has something yellowish brown to it, the head is huge, thick and brown and ends up as a creamy edge on the glass; When the bottle is opened hops are blowing out of the bottle and swirling around the bottle neck, when poured the nose is almost to much, it is very, very big, concentrated and packed with all kind of stuff. I actually had to go trough 3 different glasses to find a glass that didnt concentrate the aromas so much that they where to powerful to actually put my nose to, without it hurting to much. There are so many elements to this nose, I thought I was about to have a vulgar sweet US-style imperial stout, but there is so much more to it. It starts with a lot of spicy sharp notes; I think the alcohol is one, the hop is another, it is so concentrated that it is like chewing fresh pine needles or even like licking resin, there is super concentrated espresso, I am sure this is something like drinking an espresso trough your nose (all these aromas actually hurt a bit). There are also warm spicy sweets parts, like the spicy part of sweet spicy honey, the spicy part of very dark brown sugar. I could go on forever, but there is something easy about this nose as well, when you know the ingredients, you can take it apart quite easily and actually find the clarity of all the individual components. What makes it special is how well they fit together and how explosive this combination becomes; The texture of the body is super soft, more oily than velvety, without being sticky, there is no carbonation at all, only a slight bitterness and an acidy tickling on your thong; At first when swallowed it is quite salty, the salty feel lasts and some bitterness enters after only a very short time. The alcohol gives a slight burn and a mass of hard to take apart aromas is filling up your mouth as much as you have to mix it with a breath of fresh air to be able to survive. Aromas of coffee and used coffee beans, the smell of dried wheat, lots of hop some how you can really smell the hop oils, vanilla but as the sharpness that bits your mouth if you are stupid enough to bite a vanilla pod. WOW, I dont want to say anymore, Thanks, or maybe DONT BREW THIS BEER AGAIN IT IS TOTALLY SICK :-)

Date on cap 08-1?. Pours black with a brown, moderately full, pillowy head; it is mostly diminishing and leaves some nice lace. Nose is potent and quite complex but not overly coffee-ish; notes of expresso, molasses, black currant, light anise, strong earthen notes, a sense of alcohol, and lighter notes of burnt maple. Flavor is much of the same notes and still quite potent; expresso notes are heavily roasted but not dominant. After the expresso notes there is black currant, molasses, milk chocolate, burnt caramel, burnt maple wood, and light anise. Palate is medium to full, lively, oily, and warm. Finishes with plenty of burnt maple notes, expresso notes leaving, chocolate and currant notes lingering, and a warm finish. Complex and interesting among Imps but certainly could benefit from some aging. A little brash but the unique complexities make up for that. Not my favorite Imp but quite unique and a nice one-of-a-kind.

Courtesy of d(TheCheeseMan)snowden. Thanks Dan. Pours deep and dark with thin light brown head. In your face aroma with loads of coffee grounds with lesser amounts of burnt malts and a hint of alcohol. The flavor starts with a sense of the big ole ABV (but totally in check) followed by the big coffee noted in the nose followed by some dark chocolate and a hint of dark fruity esters. Toward the finish the coffee slowly gives way to a delicious velvety dark chocolate note. YUM.

Split this one with Ross, thanks man. Poured out very dark, almost like the absence of matter that I would suspect in a black hole. Anyway if you hold this up to your nose you get alot of coffee and toasted nuts. Taste is rich of espresso and dark chocolate, add in a touch of sweetness and a clean mouthfeel and there you have Black Hole. I will say the mouthfeel was thinner on this one than I expected but actually turned out just as well. I feel the thinner mouthfeel added to this beers drinkability and therefore added to the overall experience. Heavy on flavor, not heavy on feel. Great job, I guess the Danes do know how to make some good beer!!!!