Struise Mikkeller (Elliot Brew)

Drunk to celebrate my rating number 9600 - a combined brew by two of my favorite breweries. A hazy dark amber beer with a huge bubbly off-white head. The aroma is sweet spicy combined with a medium note of hops - a mixture of Belgian and American inspiration. The flavor is very sweet with notes of malt at first, but soon overwhelmed by notes of spices, especially coriander and cloves, as well as wood, hops, and citrusy hop notes. The alcohol is more felt than tasted, and leads to a dry quite spicy finish. A good beer - but I’ve had better from both breweries - so maybe the clone is a little lost on me?

Bottled at Monk’s Café, Stockholm. Cloudy amber, rich firm head. Powerful lychee aroma. Fairly sweet with slimmer body than expected. Quite evident Belgian style yeast character and notes of orange, but hops dominate. Alcohol plays a non-negligible part, making it peppery and fruity. The 130 IBUs feels for like 40, as it’s nicely balanced out by malt . Unusual aand excellently made hybrid of saison and double IPA, challenging all concepts (though possibly in a predictable way with these brewers involved). I like everything about it, yet it does not really click.

(Bottle 33 cl) Clear warm amber golden with a nice, dense and frothy off-white head. A somewhat raw aroma hoppiness with a whiff of caramel. Solid malt based body with hints of yeast and spices an a somewhat brutal bitter finish without any greater refinement. 030608

33 cL bottle, thanks to Grovlam. Pours hazy orange with a hue white head. Grapefruit aroma. Flavour is fresh hoppy and grapefruity, I sense only a very minor malty sweetness. Dry as a bone. I get a hoppy-overload here - my tastepbuds are burned off - I need to rerate this again hoping that I can better handle this extremely hoppy brew. It is with no doubt a very great brew.

Bottle. Hazy amber coloured with a huge and lasting creamy white head. Aroma is dominated by hops with notes of grass, pine needles and fruits. Sweet flavour of fruits, caramel, hops, grass and pine needles. Hoppy finish.