I took a few chances on bottles I didn’t know much about when I was down at State Line the other day. Among them was Danish brewery Mikkeller’s nicely designed and somewhat understated “Stateside IPA” which comes from the brewer’s self-professed love for American craft beer. I haven’t had much Danish craft beer, and I have to say that the designer inside me (yes, he’s in there) was excited by the labels of this beer, which is evidence of a design sense most brewers thankfully don’t have or seem to care about. Check out the Mikkeller website for instance, and you can see these guys care about how things look. Which isn’t a bad thing, but anyway, to the beer.
I’m a big IPA fan and “Hophead” so I usually go for bitter beers in general, and the trend of European traditional and craft brewers alike responding to American styles and innovations obviously tingles my patriotic brew sense, so I gripped this green and yellow striped brew and took it home. Broke it out last night an was immediately very pleased when I poured it out. This thing stinks! The only other Euro beer that I’ve had which claims to and actually fulfills its promise of intense bitterness is Alvinne’s Gaspar. Mikkeller’s Stateside is an awesome IPA, and at 7% ABV is very drinkable. These guys kept it pretty restrained with the malt, and went for three kinds of American hops. There is a really intense smell of pineapple or some other kind of tropical fruit which is bursting all over this beer. It tastes bitter as hell too, with a nice body that is nice but not too thin. Finally, an understated label for an over the top beer, instead of the other way around.
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