REVIEW: Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper & Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Ah, Mikkeler, purveyors of all beers weird, wild, and most importantly, delicious. It's been too long since I've checked out one of their brews. Today I'm taking a look at Santa's Little Helper, a Belgian style strong dark ale aged in cognac barrels. And to pair with it, the Rankin Bass classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Santa's Little Helper positively oozes out of the bottle. It's a viscous thick liquid, absolutely opaque. A dense layer of tan head leaves wonderful lacing down the sides of the glass.

The aromas on this beer are amazing. Intense malty notes of cakey molasses, powdery chocolate lead things off. Hints of a powdered sugar sweetness mix with oaky, notes of vanilla and tons of dark fruity bits of plum, red grape, raisin, and currant. I can't help but be reminded of another barrel aged delight that I enjoyed, Revolution's Third Year Beer.

On the palate, Santa's Little helper is exceedingly rich and very full bodied. Creamy chocolate flavors give way to a very interesting spritziness that really livens things up and keeps the beer from being weighed down. That all leads into a touch of roasty coffee and notes of malty toffee. Subtle hints of cinnamon and ginger come in before the finish.

This beer is excellent. Rich, earthy, complex with a 10% ABV that never really seems to make itself known. A perfect ale for an evening spent in front of the tv watching what is probably my favorite (though admittedly not the very best, a distinction most likely claimed by Charlie Brown) Christmas special.

With only a week to go before Christmas I'm getting down towards the bottom of the barrel. Not in terms of quality obviously, but these pairings are getting tougher and tougher. Santa's little helper made me think of elves naturally. But I had already used Elf, and Buddy isn't all that little to begin with. And I don't really know the Simpsons well enough to go with anything there. My mind eventually came to Rudolph, a special I knew I wanted to get on here, but didn't really know how. So know we have it, in this little pairing of mine the Little Helper is the most dentally inclined of all of Santa's elves, Hermey! You would think everybody up at the North Pole would be a lot more open to a dentist as their diet has to comprise of mostly candy. Unfortunately Great Lakes didn't release this as a Christmas beer so I couldn't honor the true star of this picture, Yukon Cornelius.

HD