The Triangle

Issue date: 4/10/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Karl Kuchs

This week, I bring you something I have had my eye on for quite a while now. Every time I went to The Foodery, it sat there in its sleek, conservative black with white-strip bottle, taunting me to give it a shot. Its time has finally arrived. I bring you Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast. Don't be ashamed by the name - if you are proud enough to call yourself a beer geek, trust me, this beer was brewed just for you.
Mikkeller is currently considered one of the top Danish breweries and retains an incredibly high standing around the world. The operators have run the brewery in a "gypsy-like" manner out of rented buildings for only a couple years. These two men, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and Kristian Klarup Keller (currently run by Bjergsø only), began as simple home brewers but were able to build up the business into the sixth best brewery in the world in just those few, short years.
Beer Geek Breakfast is listed as a sub-style of stout, combining both oatmeal and coffee, to create a well-balanced but decently strong stout that is both tasteful and complex. Each sub-style utilizes an additive to create its unique flavor that separates itself from the average stout porter.
Oatmeal stouts utilize a large portion of flaked oat to create a full, smooth mouth feel. In the past, oatmeal stout was considered very nutritious, offered to nursing mothers as a breakfast beverage. Today, any stout with low to moderate alcohol that uses large amounts of oat-based ingredients is still labeled as a breakfast stout. Beer Geek Breakfast has about 25 percent oats included in the grain bill adding to the thick, rich body of the beer. On the other hand, the addition of coffee intensifies the roasted flavors already present in the darker malts found in all stouts. This covers the higher alcohol flavors found in some higher ABV stouts and adds the complexity gourmet coffees tend to offer.
Now, stouts tend to go nicely in simple English pint glasses, but I felt that a special treat like this would do well in something a little more aroma-centric. I grabbed a tulip glass off the shelf and went on to pouring. The dark brown beer left the bottle in a smooth, moderately oily fashion, producing a large, mocha-like head and intricate lacing networks up and down the glass. As I suspected, an extremely satisfying, sweet, chocolate and dark coffee aroma wafted from the lip of the tulip. Well-balanced hop notes soon followed with an even more prominent roasted-ness to accompany them.

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