Mikkeller It’s Alive!

Mikkeller
Brewed at De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Copenhagen V, Denmark

Bottle thanks to Reuben @ SDBF’09. This blew up at the bar when the bartender opened it, so it was alive. Either it was just a bad bottle or the eruption effected the beer, but i was informed this actually tastes similar to Orval when its good. This was a mess of malty flavors. Will give it another shot.

Bottle. Dark amber colour with a small off-white head. Aroma and flavour of hops, malt, yeast and fruit.

From a 750ml bottle. The beer pours a semi-dark brown color with a moderately sized head which dissipated relatively quickly. The beer has a light vanilla, malt, touch of citrus, and a yeasty aroma. The flavor is notes of spice, malts, and some yeast in there. Not a bad brew at all. The alcohol is not really noticeable, even at 8%.

Satisfying pop when the bottle was opened, a carbonated beer that didn’t explode...I’m simply amazed. Pours a burnt sienna color with a frothy cream colored head. Smells like vanilla, molasses, rotting hay, citrus fruits, tartness and some funk. Tastes like grass, hay, and spiced citrus fruit. Very funky stale air taste. Leaves a hoppy gritty after taste.

Kind of a dull shade of poop, mountainous head. Extremely musty smell, cobwebs, syrup-soaked hotcakes, grass clippings from last weekend, with an underriding sweetness and barleywine-esche stench. Tastes like those grass clippings, watery wet mouthfeel at colder temps but develops some texture as it warms, hoppy tones are sharp near the finish...the brett got lost somewhere or maybe its dead brett cells that I taste, but it certainly doesn’t taste like "its alive". Saison-esch, I guess I would say..hay-like, a touch hot, in a dry, vodka-like sort of way. Grassy. Better at warmer temps for sure, but muted, or muddled, or something.

750 ml corked and caged bottle - 1/03/12 stamped on the cork. Purchased at Gomers in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Pour is a dark brown copper ruby with a one inch off white rocky head. Medium lacing. Aroma of earthy spicey clove, some vegetal, some dirty horse blanket. In the back there is some husky dried fruit - leathery more than sweet. Taste is dirty funky yeast, more of the soiled horse blanket, mineral, and a strangely harsh maltiness. There are white / black pepper notes. Unique flavor, not sure I have ever tasted anything like this. Palate is medium, mouth coating, flinty mineral with more of the vegetal in the finish. This was a very difficult beer to describe and get my head around.

Pours brown with a thin white head. Aroma is a little funk, sweet malt, and a few belgiany notes. Flavor is sweet malt with a good bit of hop bitterness.

Bottle. Hazy brown with a small head. Aromas are toffee malts with woody notes. Yeasty with some bubblegum. Flavours are sweet chewy toffee with pine. Yeasty with warming alcohol. Fairly simple but well executed.