Mikkeller Black Hole

The enigmatic branding works well

Only my second post of this month - apologies for the absence, but I've had a pretty busy schedule recently. Plenty of work but, somehow, no money to buy beer with! Well, that's a lie… I've bought loads of beer, just nothing tremendously exciting that you may not have tried before. Until now. I say now, I actually drank this beer over a week ago on the 16th and have only just found the time to write about it. But here we are - Mikkeller Black Hole Imperial Stout. Like many of our lesser-spotted imports at Beer Ritz, the Mikkeller bottles we got in were gone before any of us could blink. Amidst the excitement, however, I managed to grab myself one of these bad boys, and it had come on the highest recommendation…

The pour was black, with medium carbonation and a small brown head that disappeared pretty quickly. Surprisingly, the very first whiff presented an aroma akin to an American amber. However a little swirl revealed dark chocolate, liquorice, treacle and woody alcohol presence. On the palate, the initial impact was not as huge as expected. In fact, it glided quite effortlessly across the tongue, leaving me thinking for a brief second 'what have I just spent several quid on?!' But then it came; only on the swallow did the flavours rear their heads. A massive chocolatey alcohol bite accompanied the swallow. Lots of chocolates thereafter, with caramel, brown sugar, toffee and vanilla. There were some hints of coffee, but not much considering the size and complexity of the flavours. This was actually more to my taste than other stouts I've tried, although a little too mouth-suckingly sweet in places; despite this, it was extremely manageable and well balanced. Overall, a lovely beer and well worth a go should you ever come across it.

Something I've noticed about my personal taste recently: stouts are gradually becoming top dog...