ABV: 8.1%
Origin: Bodegraven, Zuid Holland, Netherlands
Website: www.brouwerijdemolen.nl
De Molen Bloed, Zweet en Tranen
Menno Olivier’s De Molen (“the mill”) brewery is in a 17th century windmill called De Ardkuif beside the Oude Rijn river bang in the middle of the Groene Hart, the rural “green heart” within the urban cordon of the Netherlands’ major cities. From this unlikely location streams forth a succession of vibrant, category-challenging beers that place Menno more in the line of the North American “extreme” brewer in a country with a microbrewing scene that, though burgeoning, is still sometimes hidebound to cloning Belgian and British models and rather too often tripped up on quality. Unsurprisingly this approach has won admiration on the international beer geek scene — De Molen is easily the highest scoring Dutch brewery on online rating sites.
The standard Bloed, Zweet en Tranen (Blood Sweat and Tears) is a beer inspired by Bamberg smoked lagers, but upped in alcohol and with the addition of English peated malt to the Franconian smoked stuff. This variant is the result of an incident in which Scottish peated malt intended for Bruichladdich whisky got into the mash tun by mistake. Some of the resulting beer was matured in a sizeable Bordeaux cask which ended up alongside its brewer at 2009’s Great British Beer Festival. Some drinkers wrongly assumed it was a whisky cask — I would have done too, without Menno there to explain it to me.
The beer is very dark brown, with a bubbly beige head and a casky, winy aroma with a very definite smoked peaty hit and a note of witch hazel. The dry, malty, winy palate has caramel but also notes of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, chocolate, cider and firm hops, with the peat also yielding flavours which in whisky are often tagged as iodine and seaweed. After this succession of taste sensations on the palate, the finish is more straigtforward, sappy and sweet-sour with more peaty notes and malty richness balanced by drying woody tones.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/de-molen-bloed-zweet–tranen-40bruichladdich-oak-aged-version41/108198/
[…] Bloed Zweet & Tranen: The standard Bloed, Zweet en Tranen (Blood Sweat and Tears) is a beer inspired by Bamberg smoked lagers, but upped in alcohol and with the addition of English peated malt to the Franconian smoked stuff. This variant is the result of an incident in which Scottish peated malt intended for Bruichladdich whisky got into the mash tun by mistake. (courtesy of Beer Culture with Des De Moore) […]