Sunday 21 September 2014

Mikkeller: Beer Geek Brunch Breakfast (Oatmeal Coffee / Breakfast Stout)

Two Row Bar, Fitzroy (Melbourne)

Coffee...?  Melbourne is of course famous for it, however it is possible that you will find badly brewed, flavourless, sugary crap here too.  After experiencing the worst coffee since leaving Perth, I felt it necessary to find another hit, however the time of day dictated that it was more beer o'clock than coffee o'clock.  Fortunately the good folks at Two Row Bar (yes, I do have another home to go to...) provided the remedy as well as the redemption in Mikkeller's Beer Geek Brunch Weasel  stout.  In so doing, two birds were killed with the one stone.

This stuff is the breakfast of (would be) champions.  It is an oatmeal stout with Vietnamese ca phe chon coffee added to the brew.  If you do not know what is particularly special about this coffee strain, you may direct your questions to the humble civetcat.  Make sure you do so when he's not on the loo, though, for I imagine that this creature values its privacy.  The remainders of this strange weasel-like creature's, uhh, doin's, comprises what goes into among the world's most sought after coffee blends.  Now, two worlds collide.  The folks, nay, geniuses at Mikkeller have utilised the low acidity phe chon coffee to create a beer that stands tall among its coffee stout counterparts.

Traffic fumes and other inner city smells are ushered out the door from whence they came by one of the most potent aromas of any beer I have encountered.  There is the whiff of coffee, naturally, while the rest is all alcoholic warmth.  It tells no lies; this beer weighs in at a solid 10% ABV.  Thus, I am left with the impression that Beer Geek Brunch Weasel is best suited for home imbibing.

Is the bitterness from the coffee, or is it borne of its hop profile?  I would ledger it is a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B (as Grampa Simpson would say).  Either which way, this is flavour and character that commands attention.  The coffee flavour lingers long into the aftertaste, thereby completing this true “experience” in beer tasting.

This is the blackest of black beers I have ever set eyes on.  It is inky, voluptuous and incredibly full of body.  Black coffee, black magic.  Mikkeller have pulled off one of their finest efforts to date; there is no doubt that Beer Geek Bruch Weasel will reign supreme among coffee stouts for a good while to come.

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