Yeast Series: Lager
Mikkeller ApS

 

 

 

11.2 fl oz. bottle, with no apparent bottled on date present. Listed as retired on BeerAdvocate, but I rather enjoyed the Mikkeller Yeast Series: American-Style, so I'm confident this beer has held up just as well. Acquired from the local Binny's on sale for something like $2.99.

Poured into a clear balloon snifter glass.

A - Pours a beautiful earthy rustic orange colored body with some chestnut highlights. Two fingers of creamy doughy beige head. No chunky yeast sediment visible. Looks amazing.

S - Lager yeast is more apparent to me at first, but then sort of fades into the background. Some green apple, caramel malt, and some alcohol fumes.

T - Taste is slightly similar to the Mikkeller Yeast Series: American-Style, but the lager yeast distinctions are more apparent here than the American style yeast was. Green apple, bready, caramel malts, and a bit of earth.

M - Creamy and smooth with some crispness present. Finishes dry with some bitter green apple stickiness lingering on the palate. Hint of alcohol warmth.

Overall, there isn't a ton of complexity going on here, but it is a very nice way to showcase the lager yeast. Well-hidden 8.00% abv, and I'd say this beer has held up just fine. If you can still find this in your area, get it.

Mikkeller Yeast Series: Lager ---4/5.

Pours a cloudy rusty orange brown with a large lasting creamy beige head with very good head retention and lacing throughout. Aroma of malt, Belgium yeast, sweet fruity and alcohol esters fill the nose. Taste is sweet malt, Belgium yeast and fruity notes, brown candied sugar with some bitter notes. Palate is a medium to full body, sweet slightly creamy and sticky mouth feel with mild carbonation. The Finish is sweet malt, Belgium yeasty, fruity, ending with some sweet brown sugar and alcohol flavor. Overall a very good, flavorful, tasty and balanced brew. Well done.

 

 

A - Pours with one and a half fingers of off white foam on top of a hazy, a,bet brown body. The foam settles at a moderate pace and leaves nice lacing on the glass.

S - Lightly herbal hops with a touch of red apple, cinnamon, and caramel.

T - Thick, smooth malt up front. Some yeasty character of red apple and anise in the middle. Finishes with herbal hops and a touch of sour malt and harsh bitterness.

M - Medium thick body, moderately low carbonation, and a dry finish.

D - Not bad, but what was the point here really? It seems a little bit old and the malt, especially in the finish, really seems to suffer for this. The bitterness is harsh and a bit excessive and while the aroma is decent it really falls apart in the flavor. If this is a good representation of what the yeast strain can do, then I wont ever be using it.

A: single finger head on a murky amber body with light marroon and gold hues. Nice lacing.

S: nice thick aroma, with raisin, plum for dark fruit and grapefruit for citrus. Nice sweet malt presence as well with even come milk chocolate.

T: a little odd. Has the malt character almost as a barleywine with some sweetness but the yeast character is more evident. Fruitiness is mostly candied orange and some dark fruit like fig or apricot.

M: medium body, fairly smooth and lighter side of moderate carbonation.

Overall: its hard to pick up the intricacies of this one. I would definitely it is one of the more unique beers I have had of late. Worth trying.

A: Pours a slightly hazy copper with a compacy off-white head. Little chunks of yeast are clearly visible in the bottom of the glass.

S: Aromas of pepper, toffee, caramel, tea, lemon, and orange are present on the nose. This doesn't smell lager-like at all, but it's far from unpleasant.

T: Notes of orange, lemon, lime, tea, black pepper, biscuit, caramel, toffee, and minerals are present in the mouth. The finish is yeasty and rather tart with notes of tea, lemon, lime, and caramel very noticeable.

M: Medium in body, firm, and dryish. Carbonation is crisp. This is where one is reminded that this beer was brewed as a lager.

O: This is an interesting effort, that is for sure. Like many Mikkeller brews, this beer does not really conform to style guidelines nor does it lend itself to easy reviewing. This still does not change the fact that this is an enjoyable, enlightening beer once you get over the fact that it can't really be categorized.

 

 

 

 

Served from bottle into a Grolsch pilsner. Poured yellow-orange with a three finger off-white head that subsided to one finger very slowly. Maintained excellent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, fruit, subtle earth hop, and earth. The flavor was of sweet malt, fruit, skunk, earth, and earthy hop. It had a medium feel on the palate with medium-high carbonation. Overall this was a decent brew. This one was okay for what it was, an educational brew. There were quite a few earthy notes in this one that could be off-putting to some I am sure. The fruit tried to bring this one back down to a good level, but fell slightly short. It wasn't bad, just wasn't that great.

Writing a review for this beer is tough. How can you nit-pick and be critical about a style of beer when it wasn't exactly brewed for a specific style? This was a sort of educational piece for we the consumers to learn a bit about yeast's influence in a beer. This was the same base brewed for 5 different beers and the only difference is the yeast.

Thanks to wishuwerebeer for sharing, poured into a cervoise. This brew appears a perfectly clear color of copper. 3 fingers worth of yellowish stained fluff appear with very good retention. As the cap slowly fades, it leaves thick patchy lace clinging to the glass. A swirl revives the cap back to a finger's strength.

The aroma is sweet smelling with caramel malt and a very fruited aspect that is almost winey across the back of the nose. A bit of pungent alcohol is solvent in character. Herbal and lightly medicinal. As it warms, it picks up a note of grassiness.

The taste is herbal and spicy with hops. Solvent alcohol is noted fairly aggressively. The malt backing is toasty and somewhat like caramel malt which leaves some residual sugar that exaggerates the fruity hop inclusion. The aftertaste is a little rindy that lingers inside the mouth.

This is a medium to full bodied brew with a modest amount of carbonation. The 8% abv is not hidden at all but drinks fairly decent. This example just screams "high gravity" but finishes somewhat crisp and enjoyable. Having this once was enough for me. The educational value of this experiment is noteworthy, but the beer itself as a lager is average at best.

My second bottle of the series. Poured into a New Holland pint glass. Pours a slightly hazy orange amber hue, like the American Ale version, with about 2 fingers of light tan head. Less rocky than the American Ale. Slow to drop, leaving nice lacing.

Aromas of clean, neutral yeast, like the American Ale, but much less fruity. Emphasis on the hops, citrus and pine.

Flavors of caramel and grainy malt, with a nice punch of piny and grapefruit hops. Finish is clean, with a brisk bitterness, with hops in the fade.

Mouthfeel is crisp, medium bodied. Same mouthcoating bitterness, but with slightly less puckering effect.

Overall a very nice American Amber/Red Lager. A bit like SA Boston Lager, but with the citrus and pine hops replacing the hallertau and tettnang hops.

Nice copper and bronze amber hue with good bubbling and a soft froth that lasts through the whole 11.2 oz. bottle.

The aroma has some nice effervesant carbonation that tickles the nose a little. The carbonation enhances the citric and soft earthy hop aroma and lends subtlety to the caramel and crystal malts that give just some sweetness for balance.

The taste and mouthfeel make me think of an awesome IPA recipe, only brewed with lager yeast. You get the citric bitterness and a little sodden grass flavos enhanced so well by the lager yeast's carbonation. The mlats seem to be the subtle backbone of this beers overall flavor. dding sweet caramel and toasted bread crust to offset some hoppy bitterness. The alcohol might add a little dry heat at the most, but the 8% abv. integrates in flavor and palate very well.

So good I might try to session this IPA/hoppy lager, before realizing this beer is to strong for such endeavors.

Put this head to head with the Belgian Ale from the series.

This one pours in an identical colour, a bright and slightly hazed reddish bronze colour, with a very fine head of slightly yellowish bubbles. Lacing is excellent, leaving intricate patterning down the glass in the pattern of Pascal's triangle. Lovely. Body is as thick as you may expect from an 8% abv beer, although this one certainly retains less body than the Belgian Ale. Still, it's a very good looking brew all up.

Nose is crisp and sharp, with a lot of hoppiness, and minimal malt characteristics. Compared with the Belgian Ale, which doesn't have a lot of hoppiness, I wonder how much of the sharpness is actually due to the clear crispness from the yeast. Still, it's pretty decent.

Taste is very clear for the most part, but with this brew it accentuates the alcohol character; the yeast really has trouble leaving enough body to match the ABV. Bitterness on the back from the hops, but this mingles with the fusel character to give quite a harshness on the back. Feel is light and crisp until the harshness makes itself felt.

This is definitely inferior to the Belgian Ale, which had its own drawbacks, but which was a more consistent beer overall. This one accentuates what a lager yeast does to a beer - it strips a lot of body, adds crispness and accentuates the other characters. But a lager yeast (or at least *this* lager yeast) really doesn't suit this style of beer.

Poured from a 12oz bottle into a pint glass.

Appearance: Pours a hazy murky amber with about two fingers of fluffy, off-white head that settles after a minute or two.

Smell: Piney and earth hops, slightly soapy aroma.

Taste: Bitey bitter hop presence that carries throughout the entire taste finishing with a nice malty flavor at the end.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a bite.

Drinkability: My favorite out of the two of the Yeast Series that I've had so far. I hope that the Hefe and Brett versions are what I'm hoping they are.