Mikkeller Coffee IPA

How intriguing is this? An IPA brewed in Denmark with Ethiopian coffee beans that were roasted in Sweden! It’s the damn UN of brews! Let’s check it out and see how it went down.

Appearance

This pours a nice and dark golden amber with tons and tons of thick and frothy head.  Died off pretty quickly and left some lovely lacing.  I was expecting a darker pour and this surprised.

Smell

Ooooh, hoppy and piney and grapefruity, and…coffee?  Coffee is certainly the lesser of the smells here, but it’s still apparent. Be prepared for some olfactory confusion as the brain tries to process these different aromas together.

Taste

Once I got past the confusion of the citrus hops and the coffee, I figured out it tasted like a mix of one part coffee porter and three parts Dale’s IPA mixed together–or a weak black IPA.  Very strange…it’s tingly on the tongue, but complex and deep.  The richness of the coffee shows itself the longer the beer sits, and dammit, that’s what’s so great about good beer. Walk away from a Coors Light, come back awhile later, and it tastes like warm piss. I walked away from this for awhile and the coffee was more prevalent.  I would have been disappointed if I’d taken it all in one sitting…coming back brought out the uniqueness of this brew.

It did leave a bit of a bitter espresso aftertaste that I didn’t care for very much.  Don’t think “mocha”, think “coffee beans.”  This batch (the first) was brewed with Ethiopian coffee beans. It could have been brewed with Folgers for all I know.

Price, ABV, etc

This comes in at 6.9%ABV, and runs a choke-inducing $20 for a 750ml bottle.

Final Thoughts

An interesting beer and one that I might share with someone for breakfast or brunch sometime.   In my opinion, the price doesn’t match the quality, but it’s definitely a conversation starter.