Yesterday I mentioned sipping on a Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast while posting some news items. Today, I think I’ll put up some notes just for the hell of it, as I found this to be an interesting beer. The odd thing about it is, this type of extreme creation seems like it’s becoming more and more normal, but I don’t have a problem with that, especially if the results are malted to the max.

As soon as I started pouring this beer into a nonic pint glass, all I saw was a thick, pitch-black liquid that looked like it had the same viscosity as oil, but left a trail of rich mahogany as it spread across the glass a bit. Looked very much like coffee then. Two and a half fingers of brown head formed, but didn’t hang around too long. Toward the end of its recession, the bubbles started clinging to the sides a bit. No light gets through the beer itself, and I find this to be an impressive little number in the appearance department.

Notes of cocoa and ground coffee loomed large in the bouquet, dominating the nose with an array of roasted malt aromas. Somewhat sweet, with the oatmeal character being evident also. It strongly enticed me into giving it a sip, and I was more than happy to oblige.

Let’s play a little word association. The first word that popped into my head as I tasted this beer was “roasted.” Roasted coffee, roasted malt, roasted oats, hell.. even roasted chocolate. It felt as though these flavors converged, especially the oatmeal and coffee, at the back of the palate, as the introduction hinted at it while the finish hit you over the head with it. In this case, I think that’s a good thing. Aftertaste was the slightest bit cloying, but mostly that roasted feel covered the back of the throat. Although there was some bitterness, it’s difficult to tell if this was due to a hop presence, but I did detect that in the aftertaste as well.

For such depth in the flavor profile, it actually had a lighter body than I had expected, resembling coffee once again. Although it did have a bit of a syrupy viscosity, it seemed to hang on the tongue like a cup of coffee would do. This lead to a bit of coating, mostly towards the back, but I didn’t mind that so much. Carbonation was not much of a factor, but it did add some welcome creaminess to the equation.

The 7.5% abv is not so noticeable in my mind, and I could see myself drinking a bomber without realizing it until the end. Even though there are a few things going on in this beer in terms of flavor, and they can be rather aggressive characteristics, I feel that the lighter body and enjoyable mouthfeel made it easy to sip on. Granted, the coffee and malt combination is nothing new (for some reason, I vaguely recall another enjoyable coffee beer), but it tastes great when done right. Mikkeller does it justice here, with a well-rounded flavor profile and all the roasted goodness you could ever ask for.