If you were to guess what Mikkel Borg Bjergso was doing before Mikkeller, I bet you wouldn’t guess teaching.
Now an internationally acclaimed brewer, Mikkel started out as a math and physics teacher before he discovered his true passion; brewing outstanding beers.
Before he started his craft beer journey drinking beer was just something he would do in order to get drunk. Mikkel’s curiosity started when he began working at a local café where he was able to try a few international beers. This sparked his interest immediately and quickly Mikkel dove head first into the world of craft beer. Mikkel started holding gatherings for tastings and even founded a beer club with some of his friends.
One day after trying an India Pale Ale from BrockhouseBrewery Mikkel got an idea to brew on his own in order to save money. This idea became the foundation on which Mikkellerwas born.
Mikkel alongside his friend Kristian Keller began to experiment with all different kinds of hops, malt, yeast etc.
Mikkel and Keller bought some American books on brewing and started off by cloning the Brockhouse IPA. They served their clone at their beer tastings until one day it won in a blind taste test. Once Mikkel and Keller realized others may enjoy their beer they immediately started making their own home recipes.
Home experiments soon lead to a larger scale of brewing at Orbaek, a Danish microbrewery. Shortly after that more good news came when Mikkel’s brother Jeppe opened a beer shop in Copenhagen. Jeppe started distributing Mikkeller’s beer worldwide and people started to talk.
Word of mouth travels fast and people were very keen to the experiments going on at Mikkeller. When “Beer Geek” was released (with French pressed coffee added to an oatmeal stout), the community went crazy.
Beer Geek received outstanding reviews from numerous craft beer sites as well as being voted the number one stout on Ratebeer.com.
In 2006 Mikkel and Keller had their first beer stand with eight available beers to sample. It just so happened that two American distrubuters traveled to Denmark that day and loved Mikkellerso much that they ended up signing a distribution deal with Shelton Brothers that day.
Demand increased, so in order to keep up Keller and Mikkelbegan brewing Beer Geek Breakfast at Danish microbrewery Gourmet Bryggeriet.
Eventually Keller left Mikkeller to persure another career, but Mikkel stayed and continued his work.
Mikkel now exports to 40 different countries and is extremely involved with the beer community; he still finds time to host beer dinners and beer talks around the world.
Mikkel currently brews mostly at Proef Brouwerij in Belgium.
He has worked alongside many some of the most creative breweries in addition to making house beer for some of the most renowned gourmet restaurants in Denmark.
Today Mikkel has a crew of eight full time employees and has an office located in Vesterbro Copenhagen.
Mikkel may have found a passion in brewing but you can tell with such a tight nit operation he definitely has continued his teaching, just in a different subject matter. It’s always refreshing to see creative minds helping others learn as well as working together and sharing ideas. I feel like this has truly contributed the the success of Mikkeller. Not only is Mikkel dedicated to coming up with new powerful flavor combinations, but also to using the best quality materials to make that flavor the best it can be.
Mikkeller isn’t a brewery looking for materials that will save them money; they are looking for the rare highest quality materials that will give each beer brewed the opportunity to reach its full potential.
Someday I would love to meet all the creative minds that help brew these fantastic beers. Some of the things they come out with are truly out of this world.
The Cocoa Oatmeal stout was nothing short of outstanding. This beer was on a different frequency... on another planet... on a separate playing field!!!
This brew is a 12.12% oatmeal stout, with estimated calories: 363.
The pour was very creamy and full looking, super dark and menacing. There was a slight bit of a head that had a little lighter of a brown color, this head quickly dissipated and gave way to the solid black body that engulfs your glass.
When you stick your nose in this brew it smells of deep dark roasty chocolate with dark coffee lingering in the background. Most of the scent is definitely focused on cocoa.
One sip and I was hooked... Incredible dark chocolate notes, with cinnamon hanging on to the back of each sip. The slight bit of cinnamon really combines with the booziness in the body and creates a more exaggerated boozy heat.
The roasty coffee really works well with the heat and allows a drinkability that you wouldn’t expect from such a big bodied, boozy, brew.
I love the creaminess of the body also, it’s not too creamy but not too lite, really falls in the perfect medium.
This beer was absolutely an amazing example of the innovative idea coming out of Mikkeller. So far I would recommend ANY of the Beer Geek brews... they are all fantastic. So far I believe there’s Beer Geek: Breakfast, Brunch, Vanilla, Bacon/Rauch Breakfast, Dessert, Speedway, Daydream, BreAKfast, BBA Vanilla Shake, Brunch Weasel, Mus, Barrel Aged Calvados Brunch, Cocoa Shake, Rodeo and BBA Breakfast.
It’s really hard to even decide on a favorite because they are all so different and have their own strengths. I recommend to try/get your hands on whichever you can find and start your own Mikkeller journey as soon as possible.
You WILL expand your palate, they WILL challenge your taste buds and you WILL be extremely satisfied.
Cheers to Mikkeller on the ongoing success... and yet another amazing brew!
*I paired this beer with homemade S’mores cupcake cookies, check out my new “Practical Pairings” section for the full recipe.
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Sources:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13307/133285/
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/mikkeller-beer-geek-cocoa-shake/308208/
