Mikkeller 黑 / Black

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

Pours very dark brown with no head. Bought this today to celebrate getting my membership back. The aroma is very potent with smells of bread, licorice, vanilla, prunes/figs. Has an alcohol air to it, maybe a soy sauce kinda smell. The taste is warming and sweet, some bitter kicks in. It has a coffee, smokey taste that lingers on the tongue. Very good.

Bottle. Black with almost no head. Sweet and alcoholic, malt, liquorice, no hops. Very low carbonation. Full body. Way too much alcohol in my opinion but not bad. Went very well with my home made brownies. As always, Mikkeller has done a good beer that is worth to try.

Smells of coffee and roasted malt. No lacing or head. Very dominant taste of alcohol... maybe some citrus in there too. No carbonation. Too powerful to be ultra enjoyable but a great beer nonetheless. Worth a try.

Bottle. Very dark brown with a beige foam. Aromas are sorghum with rich roast malts. Oats with chocolate and rich coffee. Peppery alcohol and yeast. Flavours are sweet and sugary with coffee and some dark chocolate bitterness. Really thick caramel and sweet chocolate with raisins and bready yeast. Very peppery and warming on the finish. Fruity and herbal. There’s a lot going on. Great.

Black/darkest brown, small tan head. Big time licorice, huge roasty bittersweet malt, light coffee, alcohol, sugar. Body is a medium/full, no doubt lightened a bit by the beet sugar, soft carbonation. Very nice, could use more time though. From notes.

Pours a viscous jet black body with no head to speak of. Nose has a heap of spirity alcohol, with dark chocolate, coffee, rum & raisin. Some sweetness detectable also. Palate is big & rich, with alot of sweetness, i was actually expecting this to be overly astringent but am surprised to find it goes the other way. Nose translates well to the palate. Finishes with lingering sweetness & dark roast, though the dark roast doesnt hang around as long as i thought...finish almost seems a little short, if that makes sense. Also considerable abv heat on the finish. I actually really liked it, even though it probably doesn’t sound that way. Would prefer a drier roastier dark malt presence on the finish to balance out the sweetness. Still, highly recommend & probably prefer to the black hole.

12.7oz. bottle, with thanks to TheEpeeist from a trade back in January 2009. Pours dark black with a thin head of larger and loose bubbles. Aroma is ripe dark fruits, chocolate, and some more alcohol port/cordial aromas as well. Flavor starts with dark candied fruit sweetness and some chocolate, then transitions fairly quickly into more burnt roast malts on the finish. The sweet, then burnt thing with a more alcoholic finish is weird. This one just didn’t work too well for me, but thanks again Chris!

12.7 oz cork and caged green bottle from Canal’s Hainesport. Poured a perfect looking pitch black body with a deep beige head that is so thick, full and creamy it looks like chocolate mousse. Aroma was lots of dark rum soaked cake, dark fruits, tobacco, soy sauce and alcohol. The body has some serious alcohol heat on the back of my throat that makes this seem more like a cordial or perhaps a Weyerbacher brew. The body itself is velvety smooth wth light carbonation. The flavor is dominated by alcohol and burnt malts. The alcohol flavor is so strong it’s difficult to pick up on the subtle flavors that were present in the aroma but still this is exactlly the strong sipper I was hopingit would be......good stuff but very very STRONG!!!