Mikkeller Monks Elixir

Mikkeller
Brewed at De Proefbrouwerij
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Copenhagen, Denmark

Serve in Trappist glass

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750 ml bottle. Brown clear. Medium offwhite head. Peppery and spicy. Sharp carbonation. Nutty chocolatey malt flavours. High carbonation level.

My first impression of this beer was very disapointing. The reason why, is because it’s very different from the usual Belgium brews, which has inspired it. Monks Elixir simply has too much hops in it - it’s way to bitter in my opinion. On the other hand they should get credit for adding their touch to the brew. When all that is said - I think the beer was not that bad at all. It pours a dark brown colour. The aroma is very toasted with a tint of fruit, but also bitter from the hops. The taste is perhaps of raisins, yeast (which makes it sweet) - the aftertaste is very dominated of the hops.

330ml bottle. Pours a cloudy dark ruby-chestnut, with a large beige head, which lasts well and leaves acceptable lace. The aroma is quite sweet, with molasses and treacle the main notes, and a hint of rockmelon lurking in the background. It is actually quite hoppy, which makes a pleasant change from the usual overly sweet Belgian styles, with prickling pepper and pine to start. These flow into a thick, smooth body, with muscat, raisin and treacle notes prominent. The finish has a resurgence of pine hops, which linger in the aftertaste, along with a touch of port. This is a quite pleasant beer if you’re after something a little on the sweet side. Whilst it is definitely a sweet beer, it does have enough hops to stop it from being overly cloying.

First of all, Monk’s Elixer is more of a tribute to Belgian brew rather than a carbon copy of it; once you understand that, then this may seem a bit more easy to understand. Appearance is fairly nice, deep dark body but a rather small head that (when compared to real Abt/Quadrupel beers) doesn’t really act as a lively element to the proceedings. In other words, it was a bit weak. Upon my first sip, the first thought was "Is this really a 10 percenter?" Holy hell, where did all that alcohol go? Kind of a shame because with this style of beer, one thing I look forward to is a little bit of that rub; that burn. Second thought was "wow, this is way more roasted than I was expecting." Which I like, but I was expecting something a bit more sweet and tart and rummy. Overall, this is not a bad beer, but not one of my favorite Mikkeller selections.

Draught. Clear dark reddish brown colour topped with a creamy beige foam. Sweet malty and fairly yeasty aroma of raisin, and spices. Full and rather vinous flavour and alcohol. Long warming finish of raisin, alcohol, brown sugar. This is the first time i try a beer that i prefer bottled to Draught.

[bottle] Dark brown with purple edges. Medium head. Aroma is malt, cocoa and dark berries. Somewhat rough mouth feel. Flavour and aroma is pretty much the same. Alcohol bitter finish. I’m quite sure this will improve with age.

75cl bottle. Dark brown color with a minihead. Aroma is plums,chocolat and some caramel sweetness. Taste is about the same as the aroma with plenty of brown sugar and dark fruit in there aswell. Alcohol presence is pretty big and ruins it a bit for me.

20091120 750ml bottle from State Line dated 10/12/14. Medium brown color with medium size beige head that lingers. Pretty odd aroma is super sweet with bubblegum, cashew, vanilla, stale tobacco. Medium bodied with decent eff. Late hit of heavy alcohol. Flavor is mostly plain, sweet, caramel, toffee, vanilla, burnt pineapple, blue raspberry italian ice (what?). Mostly uninteresting quad and pretty disappointing for the money.

On tap. Dark ruby colour with a medium creamy head. Rich aroma and taste of malts and fruits. Sub usual Mikkeller standard.

Sweet fruit cake aroma with lots of toffee and dark fruit. The taste is very sweet, lots of raisins and plums, candi sugar, lots of toffee. Meh.