Mikkeller Til Fra (To From)

[Another century celebrated with a Mikkeller beer - this time 9300] A pitch black beer with a huge dark brown head. The aroma is sweet with notes of chocolate, licorice, and spices - I pick up cardemomme and pine amongst others. The flavor is very sweet and very powerful the first strong note is from chocolate, but it is very soon overpowered by spices - and lots of different ones, vanilla, cardemomme, spruce, and more - like a mixture of all the different spices used for christmas - and I believe that Mikkel has used the used christmas tree from last year to rotate the mash - I guess that is where the spruce comes from, more subdued notes of licorice and roasted malt are found in the back ground, it also has a light acidic note from the hard roasted malt, before a very dry and still quite spicy finish sets in and lasts for a long while. Just a bit too spicy for my liking, but still nice and probably better with some spiced christmas food than alone on a November evening.

Bottled at Petalax Beer Festival. Pretty darn black with tan small head. Spruce-like yeasty licorice aroma. Sweet and fruity. Salty and yeasty. Lots of spicy spruce, slightly tart and very lively with champagne-like aggressive carbonation. The finish holds burnt coffee, lemon and long bitterness. Very reminiscent of Anchor OSA, but more yeasty, more sour roastiness and more out there. The yeasty spritzyness seem a bit out of place in an otherwise very intriguing and fascinating beer.

(Bottle 75 cl) Pours completely opaque, pitch black with a dense, creamy, light brown head that leaves a solid and very dense lacework. Lightly burned - but also vinous - and tar-like aroma. Quite full-bodied with lots of burned malt and then some vinous, coughing syrup style notes. A little ashy also - and hence not really your typical Porter. Malt astringent finish with a solid alcohol presence. 251207

75 cL bottle. Pours dark brown with a collapsing brown head. Aroma is ginger, annis seed and roasted malt. Flavour holds a smooth chocolate note and a not too overempowering note of ginger. Light sweetness and quite acidic porterish roasted malt. Ends light spiced and sweet, with a roasted malt note.

Bottle. Black coloured with a creamy and lasting brown head. Roasted aroma of coffee, hops and dried fruits with notes of spices. Very dry and roasted flavour of dried fruits, coffee, hops and christmas spices. Dry roasted and hoppy finish.