Saturday, July 17, 2010

Mikkeller Chipotle Porter

It's always nice to see local breweries do special things for their customers. Whether its making a special beer for an anniversary or special cask ales to tap at local bars it shows that they appreciate their loyal local fan base. However it's quite a different thing for a brewery that's not only not local, but one from a different country to make a special beer for a local community. However that's just what Mikkeller Brewer has done, creating a chipotle Porter that's just for Texas. Now how cool is that? The original name for the beer was going to be Texas Ranger, however for whatever reason (TABC guidelines??) the name was left off, but we have still been blessed with one amazing beer. Mikkeller wanted to brew a beer that represented Texas so they brought together smokiness and spiciness to create this brew.
The Beer: This one weighs in at 6.6% and pours a deep syrupy black with a thick head of frothy milk chocolate colored foam. The first scents of the nose is coco powder, chocolate, roasted malts, coffee. Then another whiff brings smokiness and raw green jalapeno's. The first sip is thick, chewy, viscous. Up front this beer is a great wonderful strongly intense porter. Full of roasty flavors. Then it finishes with smoke and spicy green chilies. Then as you continue to drink the smokiness gets stronger and more intense. The spiciness builds in the back of the throat. Not too intense, nothing over the top, but it balances well with the chocolate notes of the porter base. Reminding me of the chipotle chocolate bars I've had in the past. Lots of green flavors from the beer as well. This is such an usual beer and to me better than most other chipotle beers I have had. This one gets an A- from me. The folks at BA that have had it love it as well.

4 comments:

The American Don said...

How did this stack up to the Rogue Chipotle Stout

Barleyvine said...

Hey Don,
I haven't had the Rogue Chipotle in quite sometime, but from what I remember, this Mikkeller beats it hands down.

Royce said...

Very intriguing. I have had the Rogue Chipotle Stout and one other chipotle beer which I cannot remember the name of right now. Both of them were slightly off though. I appreciated that they were different and really experimented with a unique flavor, but they didn't quite do it for me.

That said I'm a fan of Mikkeller and will have to try this beer, especially if it outshines the Rogue like tedo said above.

Barleyvine said...

Royce, Definetely worth seeking out. As you can see from the right up, a big fan of this beer. I'm also hoping to try it on draft this weekend to see how it compares.