Going Barrel Crazy: A Review of 4 De Molen BA Beers

So this weekend I went to this magical place called the Fenix Food Factory in Rotterdam, full of wonders and mystery, a river side view, and cold beer served uncompromisingly through 35 different taps.

It was a birthday party of my friend from work's partner, and all the gang was there for a lovely evening of great food and drinks. But turns out we were not the only geniuses in the city, since virtually ALL my friends from Rotterdam turned up at the same place including @exyle and @eqko, and even a couple from Amsterdam. I ended spending half the time with one group and half with the other, simply because there was no table big enough to accommodate everybody together. It mattered not though, we all had a great time and especially me, in my beer heaven.

For those who don't yet know, Fenix Food Factory is home to Kaapse, a very fine brewery from Rotterdam who love to partner with other great Dutch brewers to make some epic beers. Not only that, but they also have a shop with very very exclusive beers, and seem to be focused especially on the barrel aged ones. So how do I feel about all this? Well it's not like every time I go there I get invisible on 2 liters of BA goodness. Oh wait, yes I do.

So in the good spirit of Barrel Aged beers, the theme of this post, I decided to grab myself 4 different types from the Brewery De Molen, from Bodegraven in the Netherlands, one of the best in the country and perhaps one of the best in Europe. Not much criteria in my choice here, I simply picked the first 4 that I found, and try only to make sure that they were all very different from one another. Here were my picks from left to right:

1. Quad 17 - Sauterness BA
2. Binkie Claws - Doggie Claws Bourboun BA
3. Hemel & Aarde - Bowmore BA
4. Hel & Verdoemenis - Bruichladdich (Peated) BA

So, I'm trying very hard not to sound like a posh wine snob, I'm gonna provide my review of which of these was my favorite, and why. But one thing is certain, all 4 were very good beers and I highly recommend them if you are able to find some on your local shop.

The first one I tried was the Quad 17 - Sauterness BA, and it had a great Belgium quad aroma with that very subtle white raisin smell, thanks to the Sauterness cask. First tastes are slightly acidic with some freshness followed by some intense caramel and orange bitters. A bit of an alcoholic finish but overall very good balance. The caramel color is also not typical of most quads, and the body was somewhat light. Not your classic BA beer, and not easy to forget, this thing was delicious!

My second tasting was the Hemel & Aarde - Bowmore BA, and Holy Sh#t, the aroma is simply a shin kick to your balls Peat and smoke, like the pit stop of a Nascar race. Great homage to the delicious Bowmore whisky which gives its cask to this beer. I love peated whisky, so I obviously loved this beer. Behind the peat flavor you get some burned coconut and a dark chocolate, the color is dark and the body is very heavy but very creamy. This thing is a weapon of mass destruction, if destruction meant making this fellow here extremely happy. I have to admit this will be an acquired taste for most people, but if there is one thing about this beer, is that it is unique. They managed to combine the perfect imperial stout with the perfect peated whisky to create a flavor you will never forget. Fantastic.

This is getting hard. So far very impressed with the newest BA from De Molen, and next in line is Binkie Claws - Doggie Claws Bourboun BA, a collaboration between De Molen and Hair of the Dog Brewery from Portland Oregon, USA. This thing hand a great aroma of Vanilla and Brown sugar, plus that awesome bourbon sweetness. Very well balanced with no lingering alcohol taste which is amazing as this a 14.4% insanity. Very intense but balanced flavor, with honey, cinnamon and some hint of cardamom? I don't know, I was getting quite drunk at that point. Intense full body and essentially flat like a proper barley wine. This beer was a great success in my opinion and very few beers with 14.4% can pull off the smoothness that this one did. My mouth couldn't be any happier at this point.

Or perhaps it would if I opened yet another BA, this time the Hel & Verdoemenis - Bruichladdich (Peated) BA. This is a classic Imperial Stout by De Molen, which on its own is an incredible beer. Here they intended to improve it even further with peated Bruichladdich barrel aging, which if I must be fair, didn't quite push it to the level of uniqueness as the other three. Perhaps I should have started with this one? Anyway, the aroma of aged oak, coffee and molass was very nice, but could find only very subtle smokiness. The taste had dark chocolate with some annis hints, and it's a very well balanced beer, maybe too balanced? I must say I don't quite feel the peat flavor there, in comparison to the Hemel and Aarde, this thing is a little baby crying to its mommy. The barrel aging doesn't bring much extra to this already great beer, but it's still very enjoyable and I could easily drink 3 of these in a row. Overall, a well crafted beer but without anything that defines its flavor, which all previous 3 had. As you can tell, this was my least favorite of the three.

So I hope each and everyone reading this gets to try all four of these beer, and especially my favorite one of them, the Hemel & Aarde - Bowmore BA, this thing was a monster that will haunt your taste buds for the rest of the night, and you're gonna wish you had more. What a character it had!

In the end, I feel very grateful to have such wonderful beers at my disposal and it's moments like these that make me want to learn more and become a better brewer. And with my inspirations renewed, I leave you all with a good night and until next time!