1001 Beers

Beer No: 82
Page No: 745
Category: Dark

Day 3 as the World Cup journey continues.  Today's games were again not that exciting.  The Netherlands beat Denmark 2-0, in a fairly unremarkable game, but I did enjoy seeing Japan beat Cameroon 1-0 for Japan's first World Cup win off their home soil.  Also, I did enjoy the Italy vs. Paraguay match as Paraguy were heavy underdogs, but took the lead 1-0 in the first half.  Unfortunately, Italy battled back to tie it 1-1, so it was a good result for Paraguay.  Today's beer comes from the game 1 loser, Denmark.  The Mikkeller Black is about as subtle with its flavors as the vuvuzelas that are heard in the background of every World Cup game.  Heavy handed with alcohol flavors, coffee, and sugary sweetness, the Black is definitely an acquired taste (I don't think I'll ever get there).

After just having a wide cacophony of stouts and porters a couple days ago, it's quite stunning how up-front the Mikkeller Black is with the alcohol flavors.  Almost to the point of having a slight paint thinner taste.  When you have wonderful beers like the Dark Lord (my new #1 beer of all time), AleSmith Speedway Stout, and The Bruery's Black Tuesday, it just goes to show how different each and every Imperial Stout can be.  There's no balance in the Black.  It's just so heavy-handed and off-kilter that it just is not a very drinkable beer.  Each sip has to be forced down, else you get hit with the alcohol aroma, flavors, and sugary-sweet aftertaste all at once - enough to knock you out of your seat.  I've got another bottle, so I'm really interested now to see how my friends react to the beer, but for me, I'll pass on this one.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Mikkeller 黑 / Black by Mikkeller (Brewed by De Proefbrouwerij)

Aroma: 6/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 5/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 8/20

Rating: 2.6 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Hi Time Wines. Pours thick black with no head on pour, but a slight tan head materializes after all is poured and linkgers throughout. Aroma is strong alcohol, coffee, cream, and sugar. Almost like an alcoholic coffee in the morning. Taste just hits you with alcohol. At 17.5%, it’s to be expected somewhat, but when the good Imperial Stouts like Dark Lord, Speedway and Black Tuesday can mask their alcohol, it just really stands out that this one can’t. Flavors are mostly chocolate, coffee, more alcohol, licorice, and sugar sweetness. Aftertaste has lingering alcohol and sugar - not the best flavor to keep around. Each sip just hits you again with more alcohol and sugar. Not a fan of this heavy, oily, sweet, concoction.

This is why I love Amazon.com.  I have their Prime membership and everything ships with 2 day delivery free (well, I pay for Prime...).  But I ordered 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die yesterday at 9:01am and it arrived today while I was at lunch.  How wonderful is that?  Next day delivery even though it was supposed to come tomorrow.

But the book, in short, is beautiful.  It is gigantic with 960 full color, glossy pages and the beers are organized first by type, then alphabetically.  It breaks beers up into the following categories: Amber, Blond, White, Dark, and Specialty.  After the preface, they have an Index of Beers by Country and then at the end, after a short glossary, they have an Index of Beers by Brewery.  This makes it especially easy to pick out beers that will be included in the beer.  For example, I figured the Aprihop wouldn't be in the book, and looking at the index, I find these are the only beers from Dogfish Head Brewery: 90 Minute IPA, World Wide Stout, Midas Touch, and Raison D'Etre.  Similarly, I can go to my favorite brewery at the moment, The Bruery and see that they have two beers listed: Orchard White and Saison Rue (I'm assuming this book went to print before both Black Tuesday and Oude Tart were released - especially Black Tuesday since Three Floyd's Dark Lord Imperial Stout made the list).

But either way, I'm immediately going to go make a photocopy of the beers by brewery, shrink it down to a wallet size, and then carry it with me wherever I go to make sure that if there's a beer on tap, in a bottle, or in a can that is on the list, I'm going to try it.  I will try beers I know I won't like (Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier) and then try everything else I hope I will like.  It'll be tough to track a lot of these down I reckon, but with some determination and hopefully trading via the Internet, I will find a way!  It is my destiny!