Mikkeller – Monk’s Elixir
Last week, I loved Mikkeller’s It’s Alive. I won’t make the suspense last longer: I was disappointed by the Monk’s Elixir.
This beer has also been brewed at De Proef. As its name implies, it’s meant as a tribute to trappist beers, more specifically quadruples à la Rochefort 10.
In the glass, this dark colored beer, with a slightly brown-ish foam, smells of dried fruits, malts and yeast, in line with its style. The problem comes with the taste.

Flavors confirms what was perceived through the aroma. There’s also an sweet, syrupy mouthfeel, and alcohol is very present. Then comes a clear bitterness that lasts for quite a long time. All in all, not a bad beer, but in my opinion, it just doesn’t play in the same league than the mentioned trappists quadruples.
If Mikkeller really tried to reproduce that kind of beer, I consider this to be a relative failure, as he didn’t seem able to transcend the style. However, let’s be honest, I didn’t have much trouble drinking two glasses of this one. I guess I just expected more from this brewery.

Unibroue – Maudite
This strong ale is one of the most well known beers of the Quebecois brewery. It shows an amber and slightly reddish color. It exhales spicy aromas, that can also be tasted.
Carbonation is medium-high, but doesn’t get in the way. Its alcohol is distinctly perceptible. Malty and fruity notes draw another dimension, making this beer a very good specimen, which reminds me of some Belgian dubbels.

BFM – Cuvée Alex le Rouge
Alex le Rouge… this was the first BFM I had, just a few months ago. It’s still my favorite of what I was able to sample from this brewery.
This “Jurassian Imperial Stout” was brewed with a lot of spice (vanilla, sarawak pepper, etc.), and it shows.
It also tastes of chocolate, a touch of fruits, and of course of roasted malts. After that, a light bitterness takes place and lingers. The 10.276% of alcohol don’t prevent it from being very drinkable. An excellent beer, but I’m not sure if the “Imperial Stout” label is appropriate. It’s nothing like the super muscular beers in this style, devastating one’s palate with an explosion of ever-changing flavors, like Three Floyds Dark Lord does, for example.

Nørrebro North Bridge Extreme
Mikkeller isn’t the only brewer in Denmark, quite fortunately even if he focuses much of the attention of beer lovers.
Nørrebro, a brewery-restaurant based in Copenhagen, selling beer by the bottle too is also often given as an example of a very good brewery from this country. This was the first time I sampled a beer from this brewery, and I had high expectations.

This beer was conceived in the spirit of southwestern California IPAs, so I was also expecting something very hoppy, bitter and aromatic.

It has a beautiful amber color, and smells of hops, but malty components are also easily distinguished. This first impression is immediately confirmed by tasting it: sure, hops give this North Bridge Extreme vegetal and floral flavors, but a caramelized taste makes for a very balanced drink. The bitterness is more subtle than what I was expecting for that kind of beer.
Once again, the IIPA label may be a bit misleading, but I really enjoyed this well-balanced malts/hops combination, proving that Nørrebro isn’t just an American-beers copycat.