De Molen Storm & Averij

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Hazy light orange with small lacing foam head. Weak aroma, taste is alcohol dominated. Short aftertaste. Nice to drink with desert, but nothing more. (Bodegraven 20134)

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

550ml bottle? -

An interesting take on the style, as it seemed more like a fruity barleywine that a classic IIPA. I've really enjoyed most (if not all) of De Molen's beers and this too was nice, albeit WAY overpriced. A fruity aroma of pit fruit, and candied orange peel. Flavor was definitely sweet, long notes of oranges, more pit fruit, and caramel syrup. Really, really, really sweet for an IIPA. Where's the hops? Gone I guess, but what's left behind was still...pretty nice.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Bottled (from Cracked Kettle). Reddish amber colour, big fluffy white head, some lace. Aroma is fruity hops along with grass and some mild barnyard. Flavour is alcohol, citrusfruits, mild yeast and hints of some apricot. Alcohol mixed with yeast in the finish gives a quite licoriceish finish to it all. Very pleasantly balanced.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Pours out in a hazy golden-orange colour with a rich firm white foam. Big fruity hop aroma with a little yeastiness of orange-peels, mango,pine-needles, peachesm hay and wet grass. Full-bodied with notes of yeast, bloodoranges, mango, biscuits and orange-peels. Long orangey bitter finish with touches of yeast and pine.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

A soft pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces an easily three-finger thick, pale, off-white colored head. The head is quite fluffy and leaves some nice lacing on the sides of my glass as it slowly recedes. The beer is a hazy, pale amber to copper colored brew that shows an orangish copper hue when held up to the light. Grassy, lemon-zest like hops are quickly counteracted by sweet malt and grassy grain notes, thought the overall effect is that of freshly zest tangelos. This picks up some spicy notes in the finish that could be either, or some combination of, from the hops and fermentation character; touches of cinnamon and perhaps some light turpene notes (something akin to clove or allspice) seem to be just noticeable, but never quite distinguishable. The grain also provides a substantial crushed saltine cracker like aromatic note towards the finish that mixes in with the grassy grain and hop notes. The nose has a really nice mix of expressive hop and malt character to it.

Sweet and chewy, but this is only noticeable for a second as an explosive carbonation attempts to vaporize this beer as it hits my tongue. Much more carbonated than I expected, the thick, viscous body hides and holds this ample carbonation quite well. Bergamot notes slowly yield to notes more akin to sweetened lemon zest, which couples in the finish with a substantial phenolic spiciness, whose clove-like tongue tingling character is clearly from something other than a bland ale yeast. The finish has a bit of warming character to it from some higher alcohols as well some notes similar to spicy ginger. Once the excessive carbonation wanes, the texture becomes much more manageable, though still lively, the bubbles keep the body of this brew from weighing each sip down.

this is definitely an interesting beer, akin to a Belgian take of an IPA; definitely leans towards the grassy side of the spectrum, but has a nice candied lemon zest character to it. The Premiant hop character is definitely interesting and one I have never heard of.

Purchased: Liquor Max, Loveland CO