Bottled Up: Mikkeller Black Hole
Sometimes, I fear beer. That there will become a point when a bottle is no longer just a beverage but an event horizon, a beer experience that will suck me in and wring me dry.
Mikkeller beers have pushed me close to the edge before. Sensory overload lurks around the corner whenever I open one of their bottles. So intense, such a broad spectrum of flavours and feelings that are packed in, that you learn to expect the unexpected.
And so it goes with Black Hole. Here's a beer that becomes the very definition of no compromise; a 13% imperial stout that's balanced only in the sense that holding a sumo wrestler under each arm is balanced too. Immense bitterness is matched by honey sweetness. My only tasting note reads; "as if they've tarmac'd their way through a coffee shop at breakfast time - hot tar, chocolate brownie, cold coffee, burnt toast, honey nut clusters, orange segments, spicy bagels and a hidden booze stash".
It's not a beer you drink, it's a beer you climb inside and look outward to see the rest of the beer-universe unravelling around you.
Distribution of Black Hole is sporadic in the UK. My advice is, if you see it, buy two. One to drink now, one to drink when you make it back out alive. You'll have earned it.
Mikkeller beers have pushed me close to the edge before. Sensory overload lurks around the corner whenever I open one of their bottles. So intense, such a broad spectrum of flavours and feelings that are packed in, that you learn to expect the unexpected.
And so it goes with Black Hole. Here's a beer that becomes the very definition of no compromise; a 13% imperial stout that's balanced only in the sense that holding a sumo wrestler under each arm is balanced too. Immense bitterness is matched by honey sweetness. My only tasting note reads; "as if they've tarmac'd their way through a coffee shop at breakfast time - hot tar, chocolate brownie, cold coffee, burnt toast, honey nut clusters, orange segments, spicy bagels and a hidden booze stash".
It's not a beer you drink, it's a beer you climb inside and look outward to see the rest of the beer-universe unravelling around you.
Distribution of Black Hole is sporadic in the UK. My advice is, if you see it, buy two. One to drink now, one to drink when you make it back out alive. You'll have earned it.
That sounds incredible. Straight to the top of my wishlist with that one.
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