Name: Mikkeller I Beat You

Style: Double IPA

Country: Denmark

ABV: 9.8%

Beer description: Mikkeller is a microbrewery out of Denmark. Strangely for such a famous brewery, they actually don’t have their own. Rather, Mikkeller uses other breweries to collaborate or do something experimental. This beer, for example, was brewed at the BrewDog brewery in Scotland.

For a Double IPA, this beer actually pours fairly light and with less head: most Double IPAs are so packed with malt that they can be fairly responsive and have a deeper brown colour. This beer, however, is a hazy red-brown. It is, in fact, darker than most pale ales or IPAs, but there are definitely darker Double IPAs out there.

But… in the smell of this beer, it smells just like a a Double IPA should. The smell almost wants to be malt driven, but citrus and bitter tones swoop in there very quickly and take over the aroma. The drinker can immediately smell all that has been packed into this beer. There’s a surprising spice to this beer that’s not really noticed until your nostrils start to sting. It almost has the elements of wasabi. Sweet, sticky, vanilla, citrus, and spice: it’s all well balanced, big and obvious. That’s a Double IPA for you!

This is a relatively sweet beer, at first at least. As mentioned, this thing is so packed full of malt there’s a definitive sweetness to it. However, Mikkeller have managed to do this without making the beer exceptionally heavy. There’s a good amount of body to this beer, but it doesn’t feel thick or sickly. Not being too thick, this allows for the carbonation to play well on the tongue, tingling and bringing out the citrus in the hops. That citrus is full of grapefruit and orange. The orange is more like orange pith (the white part under the skin), but that’s most likely coming from the huge amount of bitterness in this beer.

Since this is a Double IPA, there’s a very bitter finish to this beer that just stays there. But, being a good Double IPA, there’s a nice amount of sweetness just before the bitterness hit to calm things down a little bit.

Double IPAs can be fun because they’re so obvious. This one does a great job without being too mouth puckering. It’s not the most accessible craft beer out there, but Mikkeller aren’t making it to be an accessible craft beer. They’re making it the Mikkeller way which is to be different and innovative. They did a good job.

Check out other double IPA reviews.

Go to other beer reviews by Mikkeller.