Yeast Series 2.0: English-Style
Mikkeller ApS

 

On tap at The Tap and Mallet in Rochester, NY.

This one pours a dark-ish yellow, fairly clear with a humongous, unwieldy head, and lots of soapy lacing.

Smells like dried fruit and soapiness. This already feels like a failure.

For whatever reason, this a pretty intense perfumy soapiness, with a very slight hoppiness, and some dried fruit. It feels like a super shitty homebrew. What the hell?

This is fairly creamy, with a very high level of carbonation, and a low drinkability.

Uber meh.

solid english pale ale. decent.

 

 

Pours a slightly hazy amber color with a frohy off-white head that leaves chunks of lacing.

Smells of floral hops with fruity notes.

Tastes of the floral hops with a solid malt base. Hops lead off with floral notes as well as some earthiness. This fades into the malt with a caramel sweetness and a bit of grain. Fruits come through and adds some berries along with apples. Finishes with a lingering bitterness.

Mouthfeel is medium with a slightly crisp amount of carbonation.

This is a solid English pale which is worth a shot if you like the style.

 

 

 

 

 

12oz glass at the Underground on a fine summer day, especially fine for one's birthday.

This beer appears a murky, dark apricot amber hue, with one finger of densely foamy, fairly bubbly beige head, which leaves a wall of pockmarked painted lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of softly tangy orange juice, mild earthy yeast, a further tropical fruitiness, bready, lightly caramelized malt, and a tame floral booze warmth. The taste is more zingy, fruity hops - mango, pineapple, and blood orange - subtle, but duly present green yeast, a wheat-tinged pale malt, a touch of white pepper, and floral, bordering on perfumed noble hops.

The carbonation is fairly reserved, just a wee humming edginess, the body on the lee side of medium weight, and mostly smooth. It finishes off-dry, the wheat-esque malt stepping in front of the tropical fruitiness, but to the same net result.

If it's only the yeast that has produced the delta between this and your typical well-made English ale, then that's something. The fruitiness well outshines the stereotypical yeast flavours, and the malt is sturdy in its own right. A tasty EPA, put through the Mikkeller experimentation wringer.

 

 

A: Pours a cloudy orange-tinged amber with a thicky, creamy whitish head. Head retention is fantastic and there is a better-than-average amount of lacing throughout. So far, I'm really digging the look of the Yeast Series 2.0.

S: There isn't a ton of yeastiness up front, which is a bit surprising all things considered. The nose yields traces of orange, lemon, leather, pepper, and tobacco at first, but then scents of bready yeast, crackers, biscuits, cream, and caramel become noticeable.

T: Notes of pepper, leather, heather, cream, lemon, lime, orange, grass, herbs, tobacco, moist earth, cream, caramel, crackers, and biscuits fight for dominance in the mouth. The finish is surprisingly brisk, airy, and hoppy with notes of citrus, tobacco, caramel, and biscuits joined by a bit of minerality.

M: Deceptively slight and incredibly dry. Carbonation is ridiculously intense-I think over-the-top would be a better way to describe it. To this point, everything was great, but in all honesty, this beer just feels weird. It's not entirely unpleasant, but it's not all that drinkable either.

O: Aside from the weird, overly intense, airy mouthfeel, this beer is incredibly likable. Fortunately, one negative trait does not spoil the rest of the package. Definitely worth trying, especially if you've been into Mikkeller's stuff to this point.

 

On-tap at Amsterdam's Beer Temple, on to the beer:

There's a slight glow to this faded orange color. On top sits a creamy white head which retains itself well. The aroma captures two schools of thinking; the fresh pine and grapefruit found in American beers, and soft buttery yeast found in English beers. The theme continues into the taste, which brings pleasant fruity esters and a ride of strong pine and aggressive resin which just stays within reason. It's medium bodied with a somewhat crisp carbonation.

An interesting experiment by Mikkeller which works. Now to try the rest of the yeast series to see how much it can affect a beer's flavor.

A: The beer is quite hazy yellowish amber in color and has a moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a finger high dense off white head that has very good retention properties and took a long time to die down, eventually leaving a large and tall pillow of bubbles in the center of the glass and lots of lacing down the sides.
S: Moderate aromas of citrusy hops are present in the nose—grapefruit seems to stand out in particular.
T: The taste is similar to the smell and the hops also contribute a light to moderate amount of bitterness. Hints of caramel malts are perceptible.
M: It feels a bit shy of being medium-bodied on the palate and has some crispness along with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: I found this beer to be similar to the American-Style version of the series, except that it had a hazier appearance and the hops stood out more in the taste.

 

Tried against the American-style and English-style versions. Pours a fairly light amber gold color. Quite cloudy. Definitely the lightest color and cloudiest of the group. Not sure if that's about my pour or from the yeast. Head seems consistent with the other versions. Medium-sized, white, good lacing. Aroma presents the hops quite nicely but adds in more yeast fruitiness and a breadier malt aroma. It's sweet like the American-style yeast, but the yeast is definitely more apparent. I don't know if the doughy malt aroma is from the yeast or not, but it's quite nice and adds a touch of complexity to the beer. It does get in the way of the hops a bit, at least compared to the other versions. Taste is probably the least bitter of the bunch, and the hop flavor comes in somewhere between the American-style and Lager versions. Good dose of doughy malt sweetness. Firm bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel seems a bit softer but there's a touch more hop astringency, less than the Lager but more than the American-style. Interesting but I a tiny step down for me. The malt flavor is a bit nicer, but this is a hop-forward beer. This yeast seems to get in the way of those hops a bit more than the American-style version, nor does it differentiate itself as much as the Lager version. That said, I can certainly see the yeast working quite well with a different beer.