Mikkeller Black Hole
By
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
Mikkeller is a relatively young brewery in Denmark, but in its first year as a full-scale brewery they were recognized as one of the best in the world. The Mikkeller website explains the brewery’s focus of creating complex beers is designed “to challenge the Danes’ taste buds with intense taste adventures, and some of the inspiration is found on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean where the American breweries aren’t afraid to play and break all the rules. Mikkeller wants to provoke some of this inventiveness in Danish beer brewing, so why not show the way?”
I chose a Mikkeller beer to celebrate BeerADay.net’s first 100 days and 100 beers. That day, I ran out of superlatives while extolling the virtues of Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch. I had also purchased two other Mikkeller stouts — the Beer Geek Breakfast and Black Hole — and today I finally cracked open the Black Hole.
Black Hole is a Russian Imperial Stout, pouring a deep, absolute black. Atop this oily, Stygian pitch formed a narrow, tan head that couldn’t keep a lid on the astringent alcohol aroma. Rich coffee, sweet chocolate, and syrupy vanilla essence rose from the glass, seemingly amplified by the strong waves of booze. Hops were present, but they certainly weren’t setting the tempo.
I was taken aback by the taste — because where I expected roasted bitterness, the first taste was of toffee sweetness. It felt syrupy in my mouth, sweet with chocolate, oats and honeyed cream floating atop a malty base. The warmth of alcohol began to spread at the back of my throat, and oily hops finally struck just as the finish began, spreading a bitterness that slowly accumulates. Though the bitterness comes on strong at the end, the beer left me thinking I was drinking a melted hop-candy bar.
If Mikkeller aimed to challenge taste buds, they succeeded in throwing mine for a loop. This rich, silky beer is far too sweet for my taste.
The Mikkeller website elaborates:
Finally……! Black Hole is what Mikkeller is all about. Daring, vulgar and extreme. From the very beginning Mikkellers goal has been to push the limit and with this warming, intense imperial stout, a new chapter in the Danish beer history has been written. The high bitterness from the hops and the sweetness from the malt and alcohol, creates a good balance which makes Black Hole an explosion of nuances, but also leaves a feeling of a perfect and complex beer – in the heavyweight category.
Stephen Hawking has spent much of his considerable intelligence contemplating the cosmos, but it took the minds behind Mikkeller outline exactly how to MAKE a Black Hole — with “water, malt, roasted barley, flaked oats, dark cassanade, honey, hops, coffee, vanilla and ale yeast.” And though Hawking’s black holes are strong enough to bend time and space, at 13.1% ABV, Mikkeller’s Black Hole feels like it comes close.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t bend my taste buds into submission.
Related posts:
