Mikkeller Santas Little Helper 2008

Brewed by Mikkeller at De Proefbrouwerij in Lochristi, Belgium.

Mikkeller Christmas beer anno 2008. Santa’s Little Helper is a dark, strong Belgian ale, lightly spiced with sweet orange peel, coriander seeds, cinnamon and cocoa. This year’s version is recognized by less sweetness than the 2007 version, a fresh hop bite, balanced by the sweetness from the coriander and orange peel and a big bold body. Enjoy now or keep it in the cellar for many years to come.

Ingredients :
Water, malt (pale, special-B and chocolate), flaked wheat, dark candy syrup, dark cassonade, hops (northern brewer, hallertauer, styrian goldings and simcoe), spices (sweet orange peel, coriander seeds, cinnamon and cocoa) and yeast.

3.8

239 reviews

Copenhagen, Denmark

Community reviews

3.8 Bottle @ Rene’s house, courtesy of camons. Thanks a bunch, Rene! A little hazy, dark reddish brown appearance with little head. Somewhat coriander spicy, orange citrusy, candy sugar, caramel aroma. Light oxidation. Orange citrusy, mild coriander, a bit minty/herbal, candy sugar, caramel, toffee, cocoa flavor. Held up pretty well.

3.9 75 cl bottle @ Oluthuone Esplanadi. Rated on 13.11.2010 Aroma is malty and spicy with some dark fruits. Flavour is spicy with licorice, some sweetish malt, chocolate and ripe fruits. A bit expectorant‐like feeling here. Good, the spices are not too offensive.

3.3 Bottle 750 ml Aroma: strong cask notes, slight barley, vinous, mellow alcohol.6+ Appearance: black with hint of brown. Light rocky top.3+ Palate / Taste: medium full bodied. Noted by dry harsh alcohol (despite its age), dark malts. Mid noted by chocolate. Cask note on top. Good not great.

3.4 Massive Mikkellet pt.2 This one still had some flavor lingering but it’s a little past it’s prime. The carbonation has died a bit. Aroma and flavor still on the sweet malty side with hints of spice. Tasty but just a little too old.

3.6 750 mL bottle. Got this in trade from someone - I think Vertical Bacon Strips. Opaque cola brown with a ring of head. Could tell right away that this one has lost some carbonation. Smells a little like Dr. Pepper with a hint of orange. There is still notable booze in the flavour, along with dried fruit, light caramel, yeast, and port. Good body. A shame it didn’t age better.

3.6 Bottle @ Home. Pours dark brown with a small fast fading offwhite head, and then looking a little flat. Aroma of roasted malt, chocolate, sweets, marzipan, spices, light oxidation. So far so good. Taste is very flat with malt, chocolate, port and maderia notes, some booze. Thin body, flat or no carbonation. This beer was better years ago, but sadly i have no notes from back then.291211 7-2-5-1-13 Re-rate @ home 120712 Pours dark reddish brown small offwhite head. Aroma f roasted malt, chocolate, oranges, candy sugar, cinnamon, light yeast. Flavor is malts, Spice, chocolate, orangepeel, oak. Thin to medium, average carbonation.

2.3 This poured a very dark brown color with a very small dissipating beige head. Aroma was of stale chocolate, light spices and cardboard. Flavor was much the same, light notes of a spiced dark ale, but hard to get past the oxidation that has gone rampant

1.4 Had this at the 2011 Pittsburgh Ratebeer Christmas Eve Eve Tasting. Had this courtesy of mtoast. Not sure why he lets me taste these, I think he gets a kick out of the way my face looks when I get it in my mouth, such a joker. When we popped the cork on this I swear there was no co2 release. No head. Just plain dark and still looking. Smell, I’m told is the smell of oxidized beer but I’m not expert enough to say for sure. First taste? Well, let me tell you; smooth strong watered down whiskey. Perhaps this could be considered near beer but just barely, more like a PA state store thing going on here. Finish is flat whiskey laced something. Cheap whiskey that is. There you go Hart plowing over my taste buds once again. Pass over that gallon of water for a chaser. I want to say, regardless of my rating that I am very lucky to have mtoast allow me the chance to taste this rare beer. THANKS HART!

2.7 dark sepia, large bubbled gravity pour dies fast. Buttery cheese nose, light cardboard and chocolate, dates and bit of sugar through the finish, cardboard and paper lasting.

3.5 Dark brown-red, beige small cover. Aroma is cocoa and cinnamon, oxidation. Taste is sweet, lots of dark fruit, light cinnamon. spiced. Interesting but a bit old.

4.0 Drunk 13.12.2011 (so, aged for 3 years.) @ Oluthuone Leskinen, Oulu, Finland. Pitch black beer, the head is minimal in this aged version. Very deep roasted notes, lots of cold coffee, milk chocolate and charred bread. Dark cherry and plum notes, raisins, slightly port wine-like. Hints of toasted vanilla, toasted almonds and licorice. The flavor still starts sweetish, slightly rhum-like and caramel syrupy. Finishes considerably drier and highly complex mixing intense dry fruitiness with woody sherry notes, dark roasted coffee and milk chocolate. Medium body, silky texture with flat carbonation. Nice, aged touch of alcohol. This beer really seems to age beautifully after all. The 2010 version at its first birthday wasn’t even nearly as good as this.

2.7 As compared to 2007, the aroma has more caramel and less spice. Flavor is also thin and watery. Dark brown.

3.3 Thanks to yespr for that one. Bottle looks simple but good. Beer in the glass deep black, small head. Fruity-dry aroma. Starts mild, almost washy, modest dry, some alcoholic notes. Finish still very mild, not very complex. Rather disappointing.

3.4 Old amateur rating: Dark brown with a fine brown head. Malty aroma. Flavor is sweet and has good bitterness.

3.4 Hazy darker brown coloured beer with average carbonation and a small off-white head. Strong malty and yeasty roasted aroma. Full palate. Finish is bitter sweet old madeira herby alcoholic. Not bad.

3.6 Bottle @ Pannuhuone, Kuopio. Originally rated on 18.6.2010. Slightly worse than the 2009 version. A bit unbalanced.

3.3 @dmacs-750ml bottle-thanks to dmac for sharing–pours no head and black color that sheets the glass. Aroma is cocoa/roasty-dark malt, some dark fruit. Taste is cocoa/roasty/ashy-dark malt, earthy hops.

3.0 Pours almost dead flat, with a deeply concentrated, brown body. The beer smells of Port Wine, nutty Sherry (though not overly oxidized as Sherry usually is). The beer is quite fruit laden in the nose with notes of raisins, prunes and concentrated figs playing quite a prominent role. There is perhaps a hint of alcohol towards the finish and there is also a soft mustiness to this beer that reminds me of a damp, limestone cave, or perhaps a slightly damp cellar. The oxidation and fruit character combine to form an almost umami like concentrated, oxidized-caramelized malt character here in the aroma; despite being flat the nose is actually quite complex, rich and enticing. Flat feeling of course as it hits the tongue, and this makes the beer seem a touch lighter than it would otherwise be. There is a rich, nutty character to the finish that really lingers along with ample Sherry notes. The nuttiness in the finish gets quite toasted at times and there also seems to be a slight metallic note that I sometimes get from the skins that are found on some nuts. The middle has some viscous heft to it (this beer would feel more rich if it had some carbonation to it), this lingers for a bit on the palate in the finish, but then seems to disappear. The rich fruitiness from the aroma isn’t quite here in the flavor, though there are some slight dark fruit notes that come through. This beer is really reminiscent of a Port or Sherry, especially due to being completely still. It doesn’t have the richness in the flavor to pull that likeness off though; the body isn’t viscous enough, nor is there enough fruit character to round out the complexity. The aroma, though, does have the proper balance and intrigue to be quite nice; too bad the rest of the beer didn’t live up to this. I wonder why this beer is flat, the synthetic cork was a pain to remove and I wonder if a synthetic cork, when compared to the real thing, is just quit inferior when it comes to retaining carbonation. If this is the case, then a big, rich beer like this should not be packaged with synthetic corks.

3.2 750 ml bottlle from Jonathan Ron Brielle. Poured a flat body which was slightly slick and syrupy brown with no head what so ever. Aroma of syrup, sweet chocolate, slight alcohol and vanilla. The body is almost completely flat with a thin mouthfeel most likely due to the lack of any carbonation and quick duration on the after taste. Flavor of chocolate, grains, old raisins and stale alcohol. Meh it’s okay.

3.7 Bottle shared by Dmac at his tasting. Pours black. Almost no head. Nose and taste of toffee, roast chocolate, caramel, almonds, walnuts, dark fruits and spicy cocoa. Mouth feel is a bit syrupy.

4.1 Clear dark brown with a lasting head. Aroma is sweet, heavy malty, roasted malt, dried fruit, spicy and alcohol. Flavor is very sweet and moderate bitter. The finish is bitter and warming alcohol. Full bodied with a soft mouthfeel. Very nice. 121209

3.6 scura schiuma media non molto peristente naso tostato speziato cioccolato aromatica in bocca tendenza dolce etilico ben nascosto il dolce è bilanciato dalle speziature ed da una discreta dose di luppolo

3.7 Black with almost no head. Sweet aroma and taste of chocolate, carmel, nutmeg and cinnamon.

3.6 Bottle at Volo’s. Chocolate black with a little white head. Complex, the taste is mostly Belgian chocolate, with alcohol in the finish. Understated hops, sugar, hint or orange. A tad of cherry mid-sip. Above average mouthfeel. Good drinkability,

3.7 Dark brown hue with dark beige lacing. Nose of a typical stout with a hint of apple chocolate. Taste is very complex.. first is hints of chocolate and caramel.. aftertaste is apple, sweet, mild orange. Palate is a little light for the style. Overall a great beer. A little too easy to drink.

4.5 Bottle split with Pat and Vinny, courtesy of Vinny. Pours a deep, murky blackish brown body - maybe some sediment, but this guy is so damn dark. Aroma is cocoa, sweet nuts, dark fruit, and sweet brandy. Mouthfeel is dangerously smooth for an 11ABV beer. Flavors of chocolate, sweet oak, nuts, fig, and a bit of coriander (bizarre).

4.6 Bottle. I don’t know, it was big., I’m pretty mashed. Here goes. Okay. So, we poured this fucker and thought it was a stout at first, because it was cold and dark, and we had not checked ratebeer. Anyway, back to this guy, He was a nice, tall, dark brew with absolutely no fucking head. At all. Jet black surface. Actually, it’s more of a deep brown with tons of sedioment, and, Jesus Christ, the aroma is nuts. with heaps of booze and malts and figs and plums and the rest of the shit us beer nerds smell in these things. Ohhh lawwwwwd, The body. so fucking smooth. it is like... thin chocolate syrup. Hershey;’s. Fucking warming A-bomb in the finish, definitely a fireside sipper Guy . SICKKKKKKKK.

3.8 Amber pour. Very spicy aroma, oranges, coriander, hops, ginger. Flavor is sweet and very spicy. I get apple pie spices, some apple, boozy a bit. Interesting and pretty good!

3.8 Courtesy of Blazer06. Pours deep amber with thin tan head. The aroma is a pleasing mix of firm spices, plums, dates, yeastiness and some caramel. The taste is pretty smooth with winter spices, sweet ripe red apple and brighter and brighter winter spices as the carbonation unloads across the palate. By midway a note of caramel and black strap molasses come to the surface to help pull this thing together into the finish. Pretty bright in flavor overall for an ’08.

3.8 750 ml bottle @ Olutravintola Pannuhuone. Rated @ 18.6.2010. Black colour and a dense brown head. Spicy, very christmassy aroma with notes of roasted malts. The flavour is medium sweet with fruits, dry hops, which have lost their edge during the years. Medium/full bodied, oily texture and soft carbonation. I definitely like this one a bit more raw. 2009 version 4.0 points.