Mikkeller 黑 / Black

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

On tap at European Beerfestival. Pours black with a yellowish head and some lacings. Sweet and dry. Aromas of chocolate malts and dark fruits with hints of honey and ash. Soft carbonation. Sticky mouthfeel. Long sweet finish.

Bottle, big thanks to henrikb! Shared with Traci on her birthday. Deep dark iron black, lots of burnt tan head that sticks around. Intense cocoa aroma, like taking the lid off the cocoa tin, inserting your nose, and inhaling powder clear up to your brain. A lot of alcohol there too, but of a clean sort: vodka good enough to drink on its own. Some raisins. The smell of new trainers. To taste: anything other than a very delicate sip is very hot. But with a gentle sip, rolled around on the tongue, there is a lovely vanilla and melted chocolate flavor, spoiled a bit by kind of an ashy follow up note. Some lingering resiny hops. This strikes me as a beer in adolescence. The interesting bright notes it may have had fresh have faded, and what’s present now hasn’t mellowed enough to be a great old beer. In a few years, I’ll take out the other bottle Henrik sent my way, and would not at all be surprised to find something sublime. As is, interesting, but noisy and unbalanced.

Pours a deep deep black with a small beige head. Aroma is big time sweet with dark fruits, vanilla, chocolate and mild alcohol. The flavor has more of an alcohol bite although not as much as you’d expect from a beer of this strength. Nice fruity notes, roasted grains, chocolate and some citrus. Large bodied, chewy texture. Long long sweet finish.

Oh, this is a monstrosity. Pure black nectar with a shy pancake head that finally amounts to something half way through the pour. It just sits there, the whole session. Strong aromas of bitter cocoa, roasted coffee bean, leather, and molasses. Full nectar like pudding on the palate with superb carbonation for something so dense. Huge chocolate malt backbone is sliced and diced with surgical precision by a sharp aspirin hop component. The whole sip is a battle zone thrashing and cutting between malt and hop. The flavor is intense and moderately sweet with huge bittering to balance. The alcohol is high and mighty yielding crazy mental abstractions from thought to sip. The finish is as memorable as your fist broken limb or ER suture. Wow! This one gets my Trump card.

The bottle looks strange, but good. The beer in the glass is deep black, almost oily. Aroma very alcoholic. Tastes incredibly strong, very complex, notes of chocoloate and coffee. Dry finish. Impressing! Thanks to yespr for the bottle!

Very dark beer out of the bottle. I had to use pliers to get the artificial cork out of the bottle. Huge dark brown head that left lots of sticky lace. You can tell from the first sip that this is a huge ABV beer, even though the alcohol flavors are not overpowering. Nose has lots of sherry, ripe dark fruit, tobacco, and a thick,sweet alcohol warmth. This is a huge, sipping beer. Lots of caramel, toffee, molassess, chocolate, burnt coffee, fresh ashtray, sweet cherries, just tons of flavors. I just feels like a thick, big, almost dangerous beer. It is a little disjointed, and almost too big. I’ll vote for wildest and craziest.

pours very dark with creamy head that disappears into a film that laces the glass. scent is of chocolate and some fruit. taste is very warming and strong. sends a warming feeling down the throat. I would love to sit down again some night and sip this again. very enjoyable beer.

Pour is dark thick black with little head. Aroma of strong malt, chocolate, dark fruit, wild yeast, and toffee. Flavor is.......wow, i wrote that before I tasted it. Wow. Flavor is abnormally strong hitting you with sweet MALT, DARK FRUIT, and a HOP finish. This is suprisingly well blended for being so alcoholic. Alcohol is hidden well considering that it is so high. you definitely get the alcoholic warmth going down from this brew. This is dang good. Perhaps a little off style and crazy, but the world is moving towards new beers and this is one that could be leading the way.