Mikkeller - Beer Hop Breakfast

Mikkeller Beer Hop Breakfast was brewed at Lervig Aktiebryggeri in Norway and combines the now-elusive black IPA with a potent coffee addition, bringing forth expressive roast and plenty of piney hops. This pours a hazy, dark chocolate brown capped by a creamy light-tan head. The foam lasts and leaves behind web-like lacing along the sides of the glass. There’s a generous impact of roast and baker’s chocolate and licorice from first pour; it’s impressively dark and roasted, with the bracing impact of piney and citrusy hops throughout.

Beer Hop Breakfast is a brilliantly handled black IPA first and foremost, combining a strong core of roast and chocolate alongside assertive piney and citrusy hops. We found impactful licorice and bitter chocolate, along with some other well-expressed darker specialty malts. Here, the coffee’s more of a secondary contributor, or at least only really coming in at full volume around the mid-palate—letting the impactful black-IPA components lead.

This one holds up pretty well over time, particularly given the dark-malt emphasis at its core, but we still prefer black IPAs early on. There’s a combined impact of darker roast and piney hop bitterness here, such that we’d look to something easy like roasted chicken or a cheesy margherita pizza to serve as a mellowing counterpoint. Best before October 2026.