Mikkeller

Why it is renowned

Mikkeller's beers are sold in about 50 countries, and the brewery runs bars, taprooms and brewpubs abroad, among them San Francisco, London, Berlin, Seoul, Tokyo and Bangkok.¹² Its early stout Beer Geek Breakfast won the stout category of an international beer vote in 2006, which drew an international distribution deal and set the brewery on its way.¹ When Mikkeller opened its San Diego brewery in 2016, the San Diego Union-Tribune called Mikkel Borg Bjergsø perhaps the world's best-known itinerant brewer, with two of his stouts among the top 50 beers rated on RateBeer.³

The story

Mikkeller was founded in Copenhagen in 2006 by two home brewers, the schoolteacher Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and the journalist Kristian Klarup Keller.⁴¹ It began as a "gypsy" or phantom brewer, owning no brewery of its own and renting time at other breweries, including in Belgium; over time it has released around 2,000 different beers.¹ It opened its first US brewery in San Diego in 2016, in a building the brewery AleSmith had left.¹³

What to know it by

• Beer Geek Breakfast¹2006Oatmeal stout brewed with coffee; won an international vote
• Warpigs¹Its brewpub in Copenhagen