Mad Chopp!
Mikkeller ApS

330ml bottle. Best before 2016-02-04 (yesterday).

A: Dark brown. Poured lot of foam, medium retention.
S: Intense roasted aroma. Somewhat tobacco and woody.
T: Pretty smoky and roasted flavor. Surprising dry. Medium high bitterness. Coffee like bitter finish.
M: Moderate body. Medium high carbonation.
O: Obviously a roasted profile forwarder.

330ml bottle, with a somewhat decipherable image of not-yet-chopped down sugar cane on the label, which, by the by, is the guest sweetening agent in this apparently porter-style ale.

This beer pours a solid, unforgiving black, with the slightest of basal cola edges, and a fistful of puffy, rocky, and frothy tan head, which leaves some rather sudsy, sparsely strewn passing cloud lace around the glass as it quickly recedes.

It smells of gritty, roasted caramel malt, cold coffee, dark chocolate, a light woodiness, faint brown sugar, even more ethereal black licorice, and herbal, weedy hops. The taste is big on the medium dark cocoa powder up front, quickly followed by soft mocha, grainy, unusual brown sugar, bready pale and caramel malt, herbal, grassy, and weirdly acrid hops, and a tame metallic booze warming.

The bubbles are well active, keeping up a standard fizzy charade, the body on the light side of medium weight, and ok as far as smoothness goes, the charred character taking a minor chunk out of it all. It finishes off-dry, the mirror-world brown sugar, cocoa, coffee, and earthy anise esters carrying this one out with a tune.

I'm not entirely certain that the mildly exotic sugar additive here makes all that much of a dent, overall. What we do have, is a fairly tart, but still pretty balanced new-world porter, for the most part. Just don't come in expecting anything more than that, and you might even enjoy this, as I am starting to realize.