It's always nice to get a present from others, especially a Christmas present. But sometimes it's nice to get something for yourself; that must be what Mikkeller Brewing had in mind when they came out with Mikkeller To From (Fra Til), an Imperial Christmas Porter brewed with spices. I stumbled across a bottle of this beer at Sherlock’s in Marietta recently, November of 2014 to be exact.

The nice thing about this beer is that it comes complete with a gift label as the bottle label. You could gift to yourself as I did (“To Me, From Me”), give a bottle to a friend, or grab several and do both. Mikkeller has changed the label up a few times over the years, and sometimes calls this To From, and sometimes From To.

If you want to try all of the Mikkeller beers, good luck to you. Demark’s Mikkeller does not have a brewery per se but instead collaborates with a number of breweries around the world. This takes contract brewing to a whole new level. As a result, Mikkeller brews a very large number of different beers.

There is no indicator on the bottle as to when it was brewed, but I assume this is the 2014 edition as Sherlock’s had a shelf full of them. This particular Mikkeller beer is brewed at De Proef Brouwerij in Belgium.

The importer, Shelton Brothers, quotes the following from Mikkeller:

The second Christmas porter from Mikkeller. A spiced porter with fine malt background and lovely hop aroma and flavor. The label is designed as a ‘From To’ card – fill in the names and put the bottle under the Christmas tree. The perfect Christmas gift for the lazy man/woman!

Ingredients :Water, malt (pale, smoked, cara-crystal, brown and chocolate), roasted barley

Mikkeller To From (Fra Til) is an imperial porter by style, of alcohol content 8% by volume. As a Baltic porter, this would be a lager, not an ale. I paid $10.99 for the 750 ML bottle, which seems reasonable enough to me.

Mikkeller To From (Fra Til) pours to a jet black color with a massive head of creamy tan foam, and that on a gentle pour down the middle and side. Taking a sniff, I get a truly luscious cocoa and licorice nose. Sipping, the beer has big wonderful chocolaty notes up front, like a liquid milk chocolate bar really layered over licorice nibs and powdered over with a dusting of cocoa and a dribble of coffee. The body is thick and viscous. The finish is roasty and warming with alcohol, and more chocolate.

This is truly delicious, a big beautiful hot cocoa of a beer. I don’t really get the spices so much, except for the licorice, but that doesn’t seem to matter. I popped this gem on Christmas night, and it turned out to be quite a present indeed. To me, From me.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box .

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft