Orange Yuzu Glad I Said Porter (Grand Marnier)
Mikkeller ApS

 

 

 

 

Bottle was marked down, severely, at the Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits in Clinton, Iowa. It's a nice store, really. They got a great selection. But they don't rotate their stock very well, and a 75% markdown did not bode well. Also, the kid behind the counter informed me that this beer had been there since he started working there, over a year ago.

But it's definitely the BA version, and I figured what they hey, I might not ever get another chance to try it.

Wine glass pour, very dark with a decent brown head. Smells only a tiny bit stale, which is overwhelmed by bitter barley, orgeat orange, and a touch of booziness.

Tastes very good. The Grand Mariner's orgeat dominates throughout and does an excellent job of smoothing over any of the weirdnesses that a couple years on a shelf might have caused. It's difficult to differentiate between the GM's orange and the beer's citrus, but the general melange starts things off, sharing a middle and finish made up of regular, tasty porter barley. The finish is a bit more bitter, with the age coming through a bit more, but that's completely forgivable.

 

 

Showed the signs of an early infection, DRINK NOW! Sourness went away almost entirely in taste and smell, once it warmed up. Wasn't too dry. Barrel came through very nicely. Overall, much better than I expected after the initial whiff.

375ml bottle with orange foil. Served in a stemless glass 12/16/14.

A- Dark brown body, appears pitch black when viewed at the right angle. Persistent, thick tan head that starts out at one finger, and remains at half finger the entire time. Impressive retention. Thick film and collar persists even after a hour in the glass. No lacing to speak of.

S- Initial sharp lemon citrus and definite yuzu presence as advertised. Yuzu is typically a more sharp, zesty flavour of oranges in my experience. So, there is a ton of this in the nose. A nice milk chocolate background embraces the yuzu. The Grand Marnier does not come out initially, but as it reaches room temperature, it starts to come out in a big way. Impressive with a nice complexity.

F- Rich chocolate flavours mixes nicely with the yuzu and oranges, although it's difficult to tell the yuzu and oranges apart. The sharp, zesty oranges are the primary driving flavour here with the rich roasted malts and milk chocolate flavours setting the table for it. The Grand Marnier flavours deliver a closing performance at the end; with oaky, citrus and sweet liquor flavours. Very nice complexity, a very different kind of beer that I think is a hit-or-miss for a lot of people if Hill Farmstead's Daybreak is any indication.

M- Viscous, medium bodied, slick. Very drinkable, rich chocolates and Grand Marnier on the backend delivering a bit of orange acidity. Very nice.

O- Very interesting porter, the concept is quite interesting and it's done well here. I don't know the age on my particular bottle, but I believe it's less than 6 months old based on the rotating stock of Mikeller at the store I picked this one up from. Definitely worth trying, and better than the reviews on here indicate.

Final score: 4.19

 

such a unique brew right here, again, something only mikkeller can execute and dream up. i didnt love the base beer on its first go around, thought there was some clash with the fruit and the roasted barley, but the unique barrel treatment here has brought it all together, made peace if you will, and the result is an extremely luxurious citrus forward porter with a beautifully rich viscosity. the barrel does so much. the orange of the grand marnier, marries with the citrus in the beer, its not too much, but it tingles like the way it does when you start peeling an orange by biting through the rind, and you get that drying sharp acidic bitterness. thats there here a little, but the huge bodied smooth porter with its belgian dark chocolate notes and dark barley temper it, even enhance it to a new level of compatibility with the rest of the experience. still, even a short bottle was one to share for us. the sweetness lingers, and the oak is super intense. i love how different this is, which is one thing im really digging lately is weirdness in beer. mikkeller continues to blow my mind away just with the thought process. this is so much better than the base beer was.

 

 

 

 

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor Store, and once again, quite dear a fill.

This beer pours a solid black oil slick, with the barest of basal cola syrup edges, and three fingers of puffy, rocky, and chunky beige head, which leaves some decent pockmarked concrete wall lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of dark cocoa powder, sour milk, mild caramel malt, black licorice, candied orange, wet wood staves, and a whiff of tame metallic alcohol. The taste is more spoiled milk chocolate, gritty, and somewhat bready caramel malt, stale toffee, cold black coffee, Nordic anise, um, 'candy', vodka-laced orange juice, moist wooden barrel notes, and a dead leafy, musty, and earthy hoppiness, I guess.

The carbonation is fairly laid-back, almost light and fluffy in its earnest frothiness, the body on the light side of medium weight, and tacitly smooth, that woodiness from the barrel cutting a certain swath here. It finishes pretty dry, the malt more or less ceding all to the cocoa, coffee, and orange liqueur-flecked wood (or is it wood-flecked orange liqueur?).

Kind of a strange idea, to age a citrus (enhanced) porter in Grand Marnier barrels, as a whole lot of collision/overwriting would be expected, no? At any rate, the wood and citrus sort of play off of each other, rendering the remaining base porter characteristics bewildered, for the most part. Interesting to try, but a one (liter, that is) and done for this sportsfan, which I'm surmising was the intent with this offering.