Vycap unorthodox. Farba cierna. Vona cokoladova citit aj kavu. Chut sladkasta cokoladova.

Tap at Unorthodox. Overall rather sweet and malty, only light balancing alcohol warmth. Rather soft on the roast, going full frontal on chocolate, caramel, toffee and such goodness. Full body, med-low carbonation. Surprisingly easy drinking. Intense, tasty, very good.

Sampled from tap at 'Be Unorthodox'. Pitch black with a light brown head. Intense, sweetish-malty, slightly roasty aroma of nougat, peanuts, coffee and some hazelnut. Extremely sweet, malty, gently roasty taste of nougat, praline, mocca, peanuts and some hazelnut, followed by a medium long, fairly bitter, gently roasty, a bit earthy and minimally boozy finish. Full body, smooth and creamy mouthfeel, soft carbonation. Very sweet, pretty intense, a very nice sipper if you like that. I do!

Bottle. Almost black. Opaque. Very pretty tan head. Nose: classical impy stout. Full body. Taste: not really sweet. Heavy roastiness delivers a sourish touch. Coffee. Minor dried dar fruit. Chocolate. Really solid hopping. So is the stout.

Bottle from SB. Pours almost black with a dense, beige head that leaves lacing. Chewy and grainy with cocoa and tobacco. Very leathery with loads of chocolate towards the end. Semi-sweet. Very nice!

Mikkeller has made many successful, even world class imperial stouts in the now fifteen years it exists, some of them quite exuberant in terms of added ingredients of alcohol strength, but this one is apparently a turn to the historical roots of the genre, a bit like BrewDog did back in 2013 with their Old World Russian Imperial Stout. The ‘bear’ obviously refers to mother Russia (as do the background drawings on the front label), the final destination of the imperial stout trade over two centuries ago. Comes from a 37.5 cl bottle (I love those) with crown cap. Thick, creamy and dense, paper-lacing, very mocha-beige coloured, frothy and only very slowly dissipating head on a jet black beer with only a very thin (one millimetre) edge of hazy chestnut brown when held under bright light. Strong and robust aroma of strong black coffee and coffee grounds, espresso even, lots of ‘fondant’ chocolate, whisky, marmite, bayleaf, burnt toast, crumbled old ‘speculoos’, toffee, rum-soaked raisins, cigar ashes and charcoal, candied dates, charred meat, ‘blood’-like iron, peanuts, cinnamon, liquorish. Sweet onset but in a natural, ‘non-pastry’ way, candied figs, raisins, blue plum and ripe pear accents, with a very light beef-brothy umami touch, softly carbonated in a very creamy, very full, greasy mouthfeel. Thick toffeeish, fondant- and mocha-like maltiness ensues with a heavy (toasted) peanutty side to it – but quickly shifting to a very outspoken, old-fashioned black-coffeeish roasted bitterness filling the entire mouth cavity. Strong leafy hop bitterness and ‘hot’ whisky-like alcohol only accentuate the bitterness, but toffee- and chocolate-like sweet malty notes linger at the back as well, alongside cinnamon-, nutmeg- and bayleaf-like spicy hints. Robust in both toffeeish sweetness and coffeeish bitterness, this seems like a somewhat ‘amplified’ version of old school ‘European’ imperial stout, but in any case a delicious one – this is exactly how I love my imperial stouts, even if this one is perhaps a bit on the boozy and ‘hot’-alcoholic side for its ABV. On a side note: I have the impression that you see these roasted bitter ‘old-fashioned’ imperial stouts pop up more and more lately, perhaps a sign of a certain flavoured and pastry stout fatigue? I sure hope so – it looks like the same is happening to IPA, by the way, as I have encountered more West Coast-ish IPAs last year and this year than in the year before… Anyway: Black Bear is a highlight in Mikkeller’s long and vast range of beers for me, just because of this relative ‘restraint’ (perhaps a wrong choice of word in the context of an imperial stout, but you get my drift).