Last Updated: 14 October 2026

Mikkeller, a brewery which has been on my radar since I started my quest to find the most beautiful beers out there and to share with you.  But yes, Mikkeller have been a brewery I’ve longed to try, from their Wheat Ales to their Sours and everything in between.

They are a brewery located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Firstly starting out in 2006 as a very small micro brewery, with the experiment of hops, yeast and malt all playing an important part in Mikkeller’s progress of building a very trusted and strong reputation.

Mikkel Borg Bjergsø now exports his beer to around 50 countries and brews his beer for the best and prominent gourmet restaurants in Denmark such as Noma, Mielcke & Hurtigkarl, and Kiin Kiin, all of which are Michelin starred restaurants. It’s so fantastic to see these types of eateries pairing craft beer to their food and enhancing their customer’s taste palates, rather than having your average bottle of Red/White wine. Not that wine is a bad thing.

About Mikkeller: Copenhagen’s Nomadic Brewery

For anyone new to Mikkeller, here’s the quick backstory. It was started by Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, a maths and physics teacher, and journalist Kristian Keller, who were home brewing in Mikkel’s tiny Copenhagen kitchen from 2003. Mikkeller officially launched in 2006, and their coffee stout Beer Geek Breakfast was the beer that put them on the map.

What makes Mikkeller different is that for years they didn’t have a brewery of their own. They were what’s called a “nomadic” (or cuckoo) brewer, writing the recipes and brewing at other people’s breweries, mostly De Proef in Belgium, plus collabs with the likes of Three Floyds and AleSmith. That’s why there’s such a mad variety of Mikkeller beers, from IPAs to sours to barrel-aged stouts.

These days Mikkeller exports to around 50 countries and runs bars all over the world, including Copenhagen, Berlin, Bristol and London. In the UK you can drink it at Mikkeller Bar London in Shoreditch, which famously opened in 2018 with none other than Rick Astley as a partner, and they followed that with a brewpub in Exmouth Market.

As you’ve probably gathered, I am pretty interested in Mikkeller. Their artwork is something which has always gotten my attention as like Cloudwater, they use artists to feature on their packaging and I like that.  A lot of breweries tend to keep it safe and not put any sort of imagination behind their beer. I love seeing breweries go that little extra mile to make you feel as though the beer has a visual interpretation of what it is about. Mikkeller definitely bring that across with (I believe is) Keith Shore who mainly designs the Mikkeller artwork at the moment. I love the Green Gold artwork as it’s very minimal and straight to the point.

When you pop the bottle of Mikkeller Green Gold IPA open you’re hit with big oozing pine notes coming from the simcoe hops. Caramel malt notes come through with tropical and sour citrus. Combined with the amarillo and cascade both working together, they bring such a lovely fruity and deep citrus note.

When you’re pouring it in to a glass you’re delighted to see a deep amber colour body, with a light tan head. It has excellent retention and lacing which sticks to the glass. With the first gulp there is a lot of mango, a lot of grapefruit, and some juicy orange with a backend of resin. It really adds a nice depth of character to this beer, with resin like sourness that stalks the back of your throat and then slowly goes after a few seconds. I also picked up some light biscuit and caramel notes towards the aftertaste which I found quite interesting.

The Mikkeller Green Gold IPA is definitely a perfectly balanced IPA, I have seen from a lot of other peoples reviews on Mikkeller’s beers so there was definitely no doubt that this wouldn’t impress me. The only thing is I wouldn’t make this my go to IPA, due to the fact that in some bottle shops, imported craft beers can sometimes be quite the pocket emptier. It can be an expensive treat. But, don’t let that put you off, this beer could quite easily sit alongside The Kernel, Northern Monk, and Beavertown, I would recommend this beer to anybody and no doubt I will treat myself and probably get some more Mikkeller in the future.

Food Pairing

Pairing this, I would sit this Mikkeller Green Gold IPA alongside a grilled/smoked fish dish with a twist of lemon, which with this beer would work a dream. Maybe with a lovely green, hearty salad, with feta cheese which will work nicely alongside the orangey, lemony notes coming from the Cascade hops and will work through the bitter end of this beer.

Anyway, try this, definitely go out and get some and see what you think. Like I said up top, Mikkeller is one of my favourite breweries at the moment and I am really excited to hopefully try some more of their beers very soon.

Mikkeller FAQ

Where is Mikkeller from?

Mikkeller is from Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 2006 by Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and Kristian Keller.

What is a nomadic brewery?

A nomadic (or cuckoo) brewery doesn’t own its own brewhouse. It designs the recipes and brews them at other breweries’ sites. Mikkeller made the idea famous, mostly brewing at De Proef in Belgium.

Where can I drink Mikkeller in the UK?

Head to Mikkeller Bar London in Shoreditch or the Mikkeller brewpub in Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell. Plenty of UK bottle shops stock their cans and bottles too.

What is Mikkeller’s most famous beer?

Probably Beer Geek Breakfast, the oatmeal coffee stout that was their big breakthrough in 2006.

Let me know what your thoughts are on the Mikkeller Green Gold IPA, if you have tried it already!