Mikkeller Monks Elixir

Bottle. Body-dark almandine body with a medium patchy ring of bubbles. Nose-raw, leather, sweet metal, tobacco, wheaty, licorice, brown sugar. Taste-abrasive, low sweetness, odd, raisin, light cherry, starts off rough and abrasive but gets better as it warms. Has the typical Mikkeller low key flavor profile that is hard to describe (like a mix of metal, berry, apple, cherry, must, and unrefined brown sugar). Kind of thin and light smoke.

25 oz bottle, via Papsoe. Pours a clear dark amber to brown body. An almost one finger foamy off-white head that retained as a thin film. The nose is huge fruity esters with bananas, rum soaked raisins, candied plums, candi sugar, and vanilla. Minimal alcohol showing. The flavor is big fruity malts up front, lots of caramel and toffee that gives way to big yeast derived byproducts of plum, fig, and raisin bread. A little bit of chocolate even. A little too much alcohol on the finish, some lingering honeydew like notes and candi sugar. There’s a ton going on here, I’m not sure that it’s overall that great, but it is complex. There’s something to the finish that actually reminds me of Avery’s The Reverand, I think it’s the risidual candi sugar, but it’s not necessarily a wonderful thing to be associated with The Reverend for me. Mouthfeel is full bodied and a little cloying as it got warmer. Moderate soft fizzy carbonation. A lot of alcohol heat after the swallow. Overall, this was very very complex, but not the best Quad for sure.

Bottle at Toncatcher’s tasting. Poured a dark brown color with an off-white head. The aroma contained mellow raisins and dates. The flavor contained more dark fruits and some cola. The mouthfeel was full and creamy, but not as good as the Southampton Abt 12 that we had just finished sampling. The finish was long with a bit of lingering dates. Overall: A well put together quad. will drink again.

DØ meeting, Aarhus Syd Feb 2008 Bottled Much too alcoholic. Small bubbled carbonation and also in flavor a presence of added (brown) sugars

Bottle. Dark amber with off white head. Aroma is sweet and malty with notes of fruit. Flavour is sweet and alcohol, with notes of fruit and the yeast. To much alcohol for my taste.