REVIEW #112: Bloed Zweet & Tranen (Brouwerij de Molen)

Pours a shade off black with a huge, frothy dark beige head that leaves loads of lacing behind. Aromas of peat, chocolate and sour apple burst forth from the glass. Upon tasting, milky, stout-like, bready malts mingle with pervasive, but not overpowering, peated whisky and plum-laden port notes. The smokey peat is significant whereas whisky flavours are relegated to more of a base note detected along with roast cereal bitterness. Sharp dark chocolate and sweet lactic malt combine in a lengthy finish. The beer is medium to firm of body and the strong ABV it possesses is well disguised by its bold flavour profile. This is a very full and satisfying smoked beer in the vein of a porter - bordering on stout - and one I would certainly recommend. A perfect winter beer to drink in front of a roaring log fire.

This beer is remarkable in that it contains both an English peat smoked malt as well as a German (Bamberg to be precise) smoked malt - a rauchmalt. Its name means 'blood, sweat and tears', a term coined from the fact that this is what it cost Menno Olivier and co. at De Molen to achieve balance with these two smoked varieties in the final beer, and is of course a nod and a wink to the past animosity between England and Germany. All beer under the bridge! See reviews #37, #48, #49 and HTH#6 for more examples of products from this world-class brewery.

• MALTS: pale; chocolate; smoked; cara; whisky; roasted barley; wheat
• HOPS: SLADEK
• IBU: 29
• SPECIFIC GRAVITY: 1.074 (18'PLATO)
• ABV: 8.1%
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