Stupid. I must be stupid. Every time I go, Menno offers me a load of his latest brews. Why on earth don't I go more often?
Some things are just a bad idea. Coffee Stouts. Bourbon Stouts. I've still not forgiven Mike for slipping me that chili beer unannounced. Chili beer. What a shit idea.Chili, shit, coffee. Funnily enough, those all featured in the beers Menno forced on me yesterday.
Rook en Vuur. Understanding a smattering of Dutch, I wondered what the name was about. Smoke and Fire. A sip told me where the first part of the name came from. Smoked malt. But the fire.
"Chili. Can you feel a slight prickle on your tongue?" Menno explained the Vuur bit.
Very subtle and unexpectedly good.
Mout en Mocca. That was an easy one to guess. Coffee Stout. I've had too many that were loaded up with roasted barley and black malt, then coffee on top of that. Roast overload. Mout en Mocca isn't like that at all. It has an incredibly complex coffee aroma.The tastes is rich, roasty and very, very layered. Top stuff. There's my opinion of Coffee Stout changed.
That's coffee and chili covered. Just the shit to go. Enter yet another Coffee Stout. Kopi Loewak. This one made with the world's most expensive coffee. You know, the stuff the cats shit out. Now there are two Coffee Stouts I like.
A revelatory day.
In the interests of full disclosure, I will reveal that I did not pay for the beers consumed. Menno is a really nice guy.
I love De Molen too - I had a great time there in August, and I've got half a dozen assorted 75cl bottles on my wine rack. One a day over the Christmas/New Year period, I think. The 8.2% session beer called Bloed, Zweet en Tranen particularly intrigues me (even with very little Nederlands I can work out that that means blood sweat and tears....)
ReplyDelete8.2% session beer? Ron, you cannot let that statement stand unchallenged.
ReplyDeleteMmm, had a Kopi Loewak last week and thought it was pretty decent. I've never had the pleasure of a chili beer though. It'll be on the shopping list next time I'm in that neck of the wood.
ReplyDeleteFirst Stater -
ReplyDelete"8.2% session beer"?
Little joke of mine....remember jokes?
Fascinating stuff, etymology - "rook" (smoke) is related to the nickname of Edinburgh, "Auld Reekie", and Reykjavik, "Smokey Bay". And some say that Edinburgh was nicknamed "Auld Reekie" because of the smoke from all the brewery fires (see, it all comes back to beer in the end.)
ReplyDelete