3 Floyds & Mikkeller – Boogoop

Here is a collaboration between two breweries I have essentially no experience with; however, I have heard a ton about these breweries over the time that I have been blogging.  When I started this blog, I had an idea of a few breweries and beers I was looking forward to checking out, but now, that list has only increased and grown.  I read a lot of other beer blogs in addition to writing my own.  These aren’t all centralized around the Washington DC area, so I see a lot of reviews and descriptions of beers that I actually can’t get here.  This has only increased my desire to find them.  This is literally the very first beer I have been able to find that has the 3 Floyds name attached to it.  It is a brewery out of Indiana, and even though it is closer than a lot of breweries I have been able to find from the west coast, it is somehow harder to find.  I check for it from NJ – VA, but I still can’t find anything else from them.  Mikkeller, on the other hand, can be found in small quantities around here.  I have seen a lot of good stuff be reviewed by another blogger or two, and it has only influenced me to want to find even more from them.  In fact, Friday’s review will feature a beer that is totally their’s.

Boogoop is a little bit of a hard beer to find a whole lot of information on.  Mikkeller has a site, but it isn’t the most informative site for its different beers, and the 3 Floyds site really doesn’t even list this one either.  Beer Advocate has this listed as, “A delightful Buckwheat Wine-style ale brewed by Three Floyds and Mikkeller at De Proefbrouwerij in Belgium. Enjoy the fourth collaboration between our two breweries!”.  Although this does little to tell you anything about the beer, it at least tells you is a cross between a wheat beer and a barleywine.  Having enjoyed both separately, I was really excited to get a chance to try them in an interesting little crossbreed.

With a 750 of this nature, I decided to take it with me Saturday to taste while doing the all-grain brewing with my friend John.  Although we had tasted some of his homebrew and a Hopslam first, we got around to tasting it eventually.  I was just happy I didn’t have to enjoy this one alone!

There were a few really interesting things about the pour of this beer.  Since it combines the aspects of wheat and barleywine, I figured it might be a darker version of a wheat or a lighter version of a barleywine.  I think this was pretty much spot on.  It poured out this brown color with some hints of reddish auburn in it as well.  The second interesting aspect was the huge amount of fluffy white head that developed on top as well.  I was using a snifter for this one, which I thought might discourage the build up of head; however, it definitely was plentiful anyway.  It had a very hazy clarity to it, and it seemed to have no visible carbonation either.  Lastly, there was some really nice ample lacing, but it seemed to not leave much sticky residue on the sides at all.

The smell of the beer was slightly more strange than the color.  Wheat beers have a very defined aroma to them, and barleywines are really heavy and sweet, but this beer had a really big hop scent overall.  It would seem that while they set about trying to create a different type of wine beer, it would also seem they have given it a huge hop aroma as well.  This would suggest something a bit different than I initially thought for sure.  Aside from the hops, there is some very light malty sweetness to it as well.  One aspect I think relates a little more to barleywine that I pull out is a slight peppery spicy smell hiding behind the ample hops.

The beer flavors were even more surprising to me than the previous two categories.  There was a very slight malty sweetness to the introduction.  From there, you get a really big hit of hops that takes over and dominates the flavor profile.  There is a very prominent lemony flavor here in the front half that have me thinking the wheat aspect comes out more in the first half, and the back half has a slightly pepper sweetness that mixes with the ample booze.  This back half may be somewhat closer to a barleywine.  Regardless of any of the other flavors that I fought to get out of here, hops stole the show here and dominated the majority of the flavor.

The mouthfeel seemed to have some fairly obvious differences to it.  When first poured, there was a lot of carbonation while only hinting at syrup on the end.  But, if allowed to sit, the carbonation quickly faded away and was dominated by a big syrupy quality. The hops definitely dominate the flavors and lead into the aftertaste, but you do get a lot of sugary boozy sweetness on the end as well.   The aftertaste wasn’t unpleasant, but it definitely did linger for quite a bit of time.

I really wasn’t sure what I was getting into with this bottle.  Hearing it was a buckwheat wine had me wondering what overall flavors seemed to dominate.  I love hops, so I really don’t mind this rendition of this beer, but I think it will really surprise a lot of people who go into it expecting something different.  I hope I get a chance to taste more out of 3 Floyds, and I will definitely be picking up more from Mikkeller in the future as well.

Teacher Grade: B

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