Ölbeat 317 (BC17 #4): Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper 2016

Brewery: Mikkeller (brewed at De Proefbrouwerij)
Country: Denmark (Belgium) 
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Abv: 10,9 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is dark brown with a two-finger thick tan head. Aroma has dark fruits, syrup and spices. Taste begins with sweet fruity caramel. Sweet spicy caramel with bitter fruits and raisin flavour takes over. Towards the end boozy warmth and syrupy fruity bitterness get through. Aftertaste has fruity liquor, spicy malt and bitter caramel.

Rich and fruity Belgian Strong Ale. Nice and matured union of sweet caramel, bitter-spicy fruits and boozy warmth. At the same time gentle and aggressive - excellent brew. The recipe master has succeeded with his brewing apes once again.

Ölbeat

Since this is the only actual seasonal beer in this advent calendar, we make an exception and have a little joyful Christmas carol about Santa's most important little helper here. Happy holidays and sh*t!

Lemmy Kilmister, Billy Gibbons & Dave Grohl: Run Rudolph Run (YouTube)

From the 2008 album We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year, the song was written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie.

Ölbeat 245: Thisted / Mikkeller Beer Geek Limfjordsporter

Brewery: Thisted Bryghus (in Danish) / Mikkeller
Country: Denmark
Style: Baltic Porter 
Abv: 7,7 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is black with a large beige head. Aroma has ash, charcoal and espresso. Taste begins with heavy ashy-charcoaly and bitter roast. Ashy and smoky dry malts take over with bitter burned bread flavour. Towards the end burned malts get espresso and liquorice tones. Aftertaste has extra dry smoky charcoal roast and bitter coffee.

Heavily ashy, smoky and bitter Porter. Both the roast and the bitterness go through the roof in this one. The flavour is powerful and intense. Raw and violent in a good sense. It's clear that this divides drinkers to lovers and haters. I liked it a lot, but love didn't start easy.

Ölbeat

The choice was made between two songs with the same name, one from David Bowie and the other from Faith No More. But it wasn't tough: Bowie's hit from 1980 still didn't hit the spot - Major Tom simply sucks. Instead, Faith No More's Album of the Year gets its second entry to the blog, which is simply great.

Faith No More: Ashes to Ashes (YouTube)

From the 1997 album Album of the Year, the song was written by Jon Hudson, Mike Patton, Mike Bordin, Billy Gould and Roddy Bottum.

Ölbeat 166: Mikkeller Porter

Brewery: Mikkeller
Country: Denmark (brewed in Belgium)
Style: Porter
Abv: 7,4 %
@RateBeer

What about the beer?

Colour is black with a bubbly large beige head. Aroma has roasted malts, sweet black coffee, vanilla and burned wood. Taste starts with charred malty bitterness. Sweet roasted malts and bitter espresso take over with spicy notes in the background. Towards the end roasted bitterness gets on top with some alcohol and dark fruits getting in, too. Aftertaste has charcoal dryness and roasted bitterness.

Excellent and uncompromised strong Porter. The charcoal roast is deeper than I've had recently. The dry and bitter flavours are perfectly untamed here. The master of beer recipes has yet again composed a masterpiece for the monkeys to play.

Ölbeat

The label art shows a cartoon man shaking a possibly empty bottle upside down. If the bottle really is empty, the dude has turned from a porter or a doorboy to a poor boy. Probably Willy and the rest of the band is somewhere near, too. Actually, haven't had CCR on the blog at all so it's about time. And who would be a better brewer than Mikkeller to have his beer combined with the swamp sound first? Well, probably any of the California breweries, but let's not stick to details too much... 

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Down on the Corner (YouTube)

From the 1969 album Willy and the Poor Boys, the song was written by John Fogerty.

Ölbeat 046: Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel

Brewery: Mikkeller (brewed at Lervig Aktiebryggeri)
Country: Denmark (brewed in Norway)
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 10,9 %
@RateBeer

Pretty tired name - nothing tired in the brew

What about the beer?

Colour is thick black with finger-thick beige head. Aroma has mainly espresso coffee with some chocolate, vanilla and alcohol on the side. Taste offers first sweet black coffee and dark chocolate. Spicy vanilla and caramel malts join the party soon. As we get on with the show, sweet bitter hop and alcohol arrive to the scene. When the sweetness warms up a bit, the combo of coffee, chocolate, bitterness and alcohol gets more coherence and depth. Aftertaste has sweet chocolate, bitterness and alcohol warmth.

There are no words to describe the greatness of this taste experience, but I'll try. The legendary weasel. The abyss of flavours: deep black coffee and dark vanilla-spiced chocolate to drown in, caramel malts, sweet hops and warm alcohol floating inside the liquid. Unique and magnificent.

Ölbeat

Since the name doesn't help in finding a matching song, it's not hard to find a tune that shares the mood and the feeling given by BGBW. Since the original 70's version sounds a bit soft, we'll take the 90's tuned version of this rock track:

Aerosmith: Sweet Emotion (1991 Version) (YouTube)

From the 1991 album Pandora's Box (bonus track; originally from the 1975 album Toys in the Attic), written by vocalist Steven Tyler and bassist Tom Hamilton.

Ölbeat 001: Mikkeller Black Hole

Brewery: Mikkeller
Country: Denmark (brewed at De Proefbrouwerij, Belgium)
Style: Imperial Stout
Abv: 13,1 % 
@RateBeer

Temptation from the Dark Side

Mikkeller, the Denmark-based gypsy brewery, is known for its experimental view on beer. With that perspective you get hits and you get misses. Due to my short experience with quality craftbeer I hadn't yet got a miss from Mikkeller in my pocket. I decided to make Black Hole the first beer in my blog, if it would continue the success story.

What about the beer?

Colour is black (gee, really?) with medium brown head. Aroma is rich with herbs, grass and a small slice of salty liquorice. Taste is sour liquorice, hoppy saltiness and a fine touch of herbs. There’s a base of traditional imperial stout’ish coffee and dark chocolate in the backgorund, but the palette of other vibes takes over in a nice aggressive way. Ending is a mix of sour and salt. Pretty high alcohol level gets drowned under everything else. Very complex and slow-to-drink but excellent stuff. 

Whoa! If this truly tastes like a black hole, I’m buying a ticket and packing my gear as soon they have direct flights. “I’ll be back!” as they say in action movies.

Ölbeat

Dodging the obvious choice by the band Muse, I select the other almost as obvious choice for the song to match Mikkeller Black Hole:

Soundgarden: Black Hole Sun (YouTube)

From the 1994 album Superunknown, Black Hole Sun is commercially the most  successful song of Soundgarden. Like the beer, the song is versatile starting with a slow intro and building through Chris Cornell’s screechy vocals and Kim Thayil’s guitar riffs to a panic near the end. Just to come back to the beginning. Lyrics can be interpreted in many different ways. Cornell - the writer himself - has stated, that there is no real idea to get across and despite many interpretations it's a sad song. So, if the song has a meaning to you and if you feel melancholic while listening, you're probably on the right track. Anyway, a timeless grunge/alternative rock masterpiece which easily stands the comparison to Chris’ later band and solo material. And for me, works with the beer Black Hole.