Mikkeller Stateside

Mikkeller
Brewed at BrewDog
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Copenhagen V, Denmark

Bottle: Pours a nice orange amber with a big frothy yellowish white head. Aroma is a little weak, picks up just a bit of hops and malt. Flavor is soft sweet malts with a medium hop bitterness and a great amarillo and cascade flavor of oranges and tangerine mostly with just a hint of the grapefruit. Reminds me of a more mellow Alesmith IPA. Quite good but not worth the pricetag in the USA.

A hearty pour generates a stable mid-sized head of very light beige coloration. The body is slightly hazy, a deep orange with amber brown hues. The nose is nice, a blend of easily discernible hop varieties(Chinook, Cascade and Amarillo), with seductive notes of grapefruit, pine, orange, sensual acidic lime juice, lemon, vanilla beans and poundcake. Malt is also formidable, with hints of caramel, bread, toast and alcohol bringing up the rear. Actually, the balance is nice but not enough to disperse or conceal too-menacing alcohol - and this is a mere 7%, not exactly a monster beer. This is as much a display of careful balance as it is a statement of the age of this bottle; it’s not dated, but it’s not as fresh as would be desireable, or so it would seem with no basis for comparison from an older sample. The flavor provides an immediate indicator of the progressing age of the sample: graham cracker notes indicate slight DMS notes that more aggressive hops would likely conceal, due to its very mild nature. This is but a footnote, as the taste is pleasant, semi-sweet malts coalescing with moderate bitterness from resiny hops. Toast notes are prominent, giving this an earthy character. The finish is malty, toasty and moderately bitter, not very clean and certainly not crisp or refreshing, astringency hindering enjoyment. The mouthfeel is evenly carbonated, medium bodied and rather unexciting. Tasty but uninteresting, forgettable even though well done. This is certainly fresh enough to attain an accurate perception of its qualities and flaws.

Pours a burnt orange color. Aroma is carmel and malts, with the hops coming in a bit on the finish, alcohol is apparent. Having not tasted many IPA’s, my expectation of a bold hop aroma is perhaps a bit misguided. Flavor is malty at first yielding to a slight bitterness to close it out.

Bottle. from Sam’s. Ok aroma, bittersweet. Citurs, Grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime, Honey, vanilla, butter creme, cardboard. Maybe an oxidized factor here. Clean brownish orange color, Good head that faded at a moderate pace to a ring, minor lacing. Bitter sweet flavor, like aroma, but Grapefruit is more pronounced, some caramel, cardboard. Thicker body, creamy mouthfeel, bitter dry finish that lingers. Good brew, though I wasn’t bowled over either. Maybe I was expecting more from it after so much talk about Mikkeller.

Bottle. Decent hop aroma although some presence of DMS. Nice foam retention and lacing. Clean bitterness with creamy finish. Overall I was expecting a bit more hop character from this American style IPA from the famed Danish brewers.

pours a hazy orange color with a medium size frothy white head. citrus hop aroma. flavor is mostly citrus(lemon candy) and pine with nice herbal and mint notes. not huge on the malts.

This one isn’t so great. Very mild hop aroma and hop flavor, and light, sweet malt. Very dry throughout. It lacks flavor and aroma.

Mmnn. Hops. Citrus hops on the nose of this cloudy orange beer. Bitter hop body with a solid hop finish.