All of us here at Hooked on Hops got together to taste the three different Mikkeller “breakfast” beers that are currently available in Las Vegas. Beer Geek Breakfast, Beer Hop Breakfast, and Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, to be exact.
All three of these beers are oatmeal stouts brewed with coffee that are of moderate strength at 7.5%. Beer Geek Brunch is the odd man out here boasting an ABV of 10.9%.
First up, Beer Geek Breakfast. This is the normal one of the three. The original, if you will. This beer tastes like a bitter, black coffee with a nice, sweet oatmeal finish. Goran personally doesn’t care for the taste of coffee, but he loved this beer. We all loved this beer. I strongly urge anyone who loves stouts to buy this beer! Perfect smell, taste and mouthfeel, this is an incredible beer.
Next up was Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. It is essentially the same beer as before, however the alcohol level is bumped up to 10.9%. Also the coffee Is made from weasel shit. Seriously. Go ahead and search Civet coffee on the internet, I’ll wait.
This beer was a bit sweeter than Beer Geek Breakfast. The added sweetness is a result of the additional malt needed to get alcohol content up. The finish was also a bit more bitter than the last beer. Tastes like a lot more coffee was used. In addition to giving the beer more alcohol, the added malt also made the body thicker. This beer was a bit syrupy and very filling. It had a velvety texture. Or as Armando stated, “This tastes like fucking velvet!” The taste was incredible, like an amped up version of Beer Geek Breakfast. I do not, however, recommend you drink this beer alone. It is very flavorful, thick, and filling. Trying to drink the entire bottle by yourself is a bit much.
Finally we tasted Beer Hop Breakfast. This beer is essentially the same as Beer Geek Breakfast (same alcohol level and type of coffee used) except it is very heavily dry hopped. For the unfamiliar, dry hopping a beer means to add hops post fermentation.
This beer has a very big grapefruit aroma pouring out of the glass. The coffee bitterness is still there, however it is now paired with big, leafy, green hop flavor. This beer is meant for the hop lovers. It’s not necessarily bitter hoppy, like an IPA. It instead focuses on aroma and flavor. This is a very unique take on the stout style that can be very delicious to some, but a bit odd to others.
So which one is the best? They are all fantastic beers for different purposes. If you want to drink one of the best stouts you will ever have, get Beer Geek Breakfast. If you want something that is more of a dessert beer, get Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, it would go great with ice cream or even by itself as an after dinner beer. If you want to try something unique, kind of a blend of a stout and an IPA, try Beer Hop Breakfast.
All of these beers are currently available at Whole Foods and Khoury’s Fine Wine.
Special thanks to Danny Szeto for taking these awesome photos
India Pale Ale. Better known as it’s modern day, and less historically accurate cousin, IPA. One of the most popular craft beer styles in America, especially here on the west coast. In 2011, I had 52 different IPAs total. Of these 52 different IPA’s, I’ve managed to choose my favorite 10 that I had the pleasure of consuming this year. And by 10, I really mean 17. Enjoy, in no particular order:
Dogfish Head 120 Minute/90 Minute/60 Minute IPA/Aprihop
This might look like 4 different beers, but to me I see 4 different variations of the same beer. These are the most approachable of the IPAs, with more so a strong hop aroma and flavor rather than bitterness.
The 60 and 90 are available year round. The 120 is only available a handful of times a year, and is hard to find when it is. Aces and Ales happened to get it on tap and Whole Foods and Khoury’s sold out of the bottles immediately. Aprihop is a variation of the 60 Minute with apricots thrown in, available in the spring time.
Stone Cali-Belgique IPA/IPA
Stone IPA is one of my favorite IPAs and a great example of the “west-coast style IPA.” This is a strongly bitter beer with a bright, citrusy aroma. It is available nearly everywhere that sells beer and on tap at nearly all the PTs as well as Millers Alehouse and Yardhouse.
Cali-Belgique is the same beer, but made with a Belgian yeast strain. This is the best Belgian style IPA I’ve had. The Belgian yeast adds a little bit more fruitiness to the beer that compliments the citrus flavors.
Despite being a year-round brew for Stone, Cali-Belgique can only be periodically found in Las Vegas.
Lagunita’s Sucks Holiday Ale
Probably the heaviest hop aroma of all these beers, this IPA is incredible. Loads of sweet, citrusy aroma. Very sweet and smooth body and very drinkable.
This is only a seasonal ale that was brewed in place of Brown Shugga’. This is still available in bottles around town and is currently on tap at Tenaya Creek Brewery.
Coronado Cask Idiot IPA
Neither the cask version, or the normal version is available in Las Vegas. I had this beer in San Diego. I never had the normal version, but the cask version was probably the smoothest IPA I’ve had. It wasn’t overly bitter and had a bit less aroma then the other IPA’s on this list. Being as it was on cask however, is what made this beer stand out from the rest. Soft texture, lightly carbonated and full of earthy, piny hop flavor.
Ballast Point Habanero Sculpin IPA/Sculpin IPA
Sculpin IPA is one of the highest rated IPA’s on Untappd. It is another “west coast style” IPA in that it has a strong bitter bite with huge grapefruit flavors and aromas.
Ballast Point recently started distributing to Las Vegas, but are keeping Sculpin in California.
If you visit the brewery in San Diego, they may have Habanero Sculpin on tap. This is a version of Sculpin with habanero peppers thrown in. The pepper flavors compliment the hop bitterness perfectly, and it adds a nice burning finish!
Baird/Ishii/Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA
A truly incredible and unique beer. This one had mixed reviews from people as they felt that the citrusy hops didn’t go well with florally aroma and tea flavor. Like I said, it’s very unique and I thought it was awesome. Sadly, it was only brewed once and was never available in Las Vegas.
Maui Flyin’ Hi.P.Hay/21st Amendment Hop Crisis
Technically two different beers from two different breweries, but I’m grouping these together as they were both amazing IPAs and both from cans. Both had amazing hop aroma bursting out of the can and a great citrusy flavor.
Maui Flyin’ Hi.P.Hay is apparently a limited release beer, but I feel like I saw it in town recently. Maybe not?
21st Amendment Hop Crisis is also a limited release beer and sadly, the brewery does not distribute to Nevada.
Dogfish Head Hellhound on my Ale
As you can tell, many of these IPAs are being described as “citrusy.” This beer actually was brewed with lemons! As such, it had a nice sweet lemony flavor pairing with the harsher citrus bite from the hops.
This was a special release beer commemorating blues guitarist Robert Johnson. It was brewed twice last year and may still be available in town.
Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA
Variation of the IPA style, a black IPA is both hoppy and roasty. This particular beer is probably the greatest black IPA there is. Very full bodied, soft texture and a wall of leafy hop aroma.
Brewed this summer for Stone’s 15 anniversary, there are no plans to brew this again. Good news is that it’s still available in town. I recently saw it at both Khoury’s and the Las Vegas Blvd Whole Foods. If you can’t find it, then you should try…
Stone Double Dry Hopped Sublimely Self Righteous Ale/Sublimely Self Righteous Ale
This beer is available year round in bottles and can be found on tap at Yardhouse. Sublimely Self Righteous Ale is very similar to Stone’s 15 Anniversary ale except there is a little less alcohol and less body making this less filling and more drinkable. Still has the wall of hop aroma that hits you right before your first sip, this is one of my favorite beers!
Earlier this year Aces and Ales had a double dry hopped variation. What this means is that there was even more hop aroma bursting out of the glass, making this an even more flavorful beer than it already is!
All of the above images were taken from the respective brewers’ websites.
