De Molen Bloed, Zweet & Tranen (Blood, Sweat & Tears)

Brewed by Brouwerij de Molen
Style: Smoked
Bodegraven, Netherlands

Bottled at Monks Café, Wallingatan Stockholm. Pours out in a hazy brown colour with a small tan-colored foam. Smoked ham, peated malts and roasted nuts in the aroma. Medium to full-bodied with notes of toasted malts, rye, tar and smoke. Long smoky finish of grains and licorice.

Sampled at tronraner’s Xmas Eve^3 tasting. Dark brown pour. Alcohol and antiseptic aromas. Flavors of roasted bandaids, coffee, and molasses. Not awful, but something was definitely off here.

Bottle thanks to fonefan: Poured a reddish black with a light brown head. Aroma is dark chocolate, malts, and peat. Taste is more dark chocolate, smokey burnt malts, and sweet. Lingers on the tongue and keeps me interested at every sip.

Bottle at Xmas Eve Eve Eve. Pours dark brown with tiny head. The aroma is cheap coffee, iodine, rosemary, and wood. The flavor is candyish with medicinal notes, in a way that resembles strong cough syrup. The smoke comes across as acrid. Not a good attempt.

tronraner’s Xmas Eve Eve Eve Tasting. Sample from a bottle shared by me, thanks to bierkoning for the trade. Dark dark brown small hints of red thin whitish head. Antiseptic aroma hints of alcohol and some smoke. Taste is some woody smoke but too thin and alcoholic.

Bottle shared by lithy at Christmas Eve^3. Opaque with a lasting ring of bubbles and some spots of lace. Coffee and chocolate aroma is nice, but nearly overpowered by medicinal and plastic smells. The flavor starts nicely with some mocha, but is quickly overtaken by Neosporin on gauze. Nice aftertaste of tobacco and chocolate are not enough to rescue this one. Medium body is smooth and roasty-dry.

Well, it smells nice, but the flavor, uh, needs some work. Sure the smoke is there, but so a plasticy, medciney flavor that overpowers pretty much everything. I ended up not liking this much. Shared by lilthy at the Maryville tasting.

Bottle shared by Lithy at Joe’s Christmas Eve Eve Eve tasting. Pours a dark brown with no head. I get a little plastic, iodine, chocolate, and fruit wood smoke in the aroma. The alcohol is apparent throughout. I am disappointed at the lack of smoked meat character on this one. I feel it has a mineral, briny, rubber flavor with a chocolate underbelly. This is pretty weird and it needs more smoke.