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Mikkeller is a renowned Danish brewer, and probably you’ve come across their beers. I’m thinking particularly to the Single Hop Series. This is a controversial project, with beers brewed adding only one kind of hop, in order to assess and appreciate its features at its best. Obviously it is also possible to compare two or more beers in the series to discover the differences between the varieties of hops.

For these reasons the Single Hop beers are considered didactic, almost experiments suited for tasting lessons. Despite this, these beers have been a commercial success that probably went beyond the wishes of the same Mikkeller, so that the Danish brewer has decided to begin with two more similar projects.

The first is called Yeast Series and, as you can imagine, is very similar to the Single Hop Series, with the exception that the shift will involve the type of yeast. The base beer will be the same, a well-hopped 8% ABV Strong Pale Ale. The used ingredients will remain the same in every beer in the series – the same malts, hops and water – but the yeast used will change. The first beers brewed will be fermented with the following yeasts: Lager, “Regular U.S. ale”, Belgian Ale / Trappist, Weiss and Brettanomyces.

As Beernews suggests, this is perhaps a more didactic idea than the one behind the Single Hop Series, as compared to the latter they will get very different beers. But beyond the pedagogical strength of the project, we are puzzled by the fact that attention to the end-product is left in the background. Someone has rightly called them “homebrewers’ experiments”, stressing out that as beers they are meaningless and difficult to be sold in pubs and beershops. A concern that seems not that shared given the success achieved so far.

Anyway, I spoke at the opening of a further project. Well, Mikkeller launch on the market four different versions of his Black Hole, all of which aged in a particular kind of barrel. The goal is to discover the different influences of different woods on the beer. Not that original, as it seems they’re taking inspiration from the Woodwork Series of the Roman brewery Revelation Cat.

Let’s conclude by returning again on Single Hop, because there will be five new productions in the range, in addition to 10 already existing. The next hops that will be used are Summit, Apollo, Bravo, Citra and Sorachi Ace. After the first ten characterized by rather famous hops, now Mikkeller focuses on less common hops. Anyway, it is expected that the brewery will repeat the successes achieved so far.

P.S. Since we’re talking about Mikkeller, here’s a fresh news reported by Knut Albert: the producer is about to open his own pub in Copenhagen, where its beers will be available along with those of “friends” such as Brewdog (involved in a similar project at home) De Molen, Nøgne Ø, Struise and De Dolle, in addition to American products and lambic on tap.