Heinde & Verre
Brouwerij De Molen

 

 

This is just too sweet to drink I am afraid. Perhaps this is how the style is supposed to be, but I despise it. Down the drain

 

Nice old ale taste but also very sweet. I drank this small bottle in several sittings as the last beer of the day. I enjoyed it but the drinkability suffers from the sweetness

 

 

330ml bottle - an 'English strong ale-ish' brew, whose name translates to 'Far and Away'.

This beer pours a hazy, dark bronzed amber colour, with one very skinny finger of weakly foamy, and mostly just surface-skimming creamy dirty white head, which leaves a bit of cannonball splash lace in places around the glass as things slowly sink away.

It smells of very sweet caramel/toffee/treacle malt, orange marmalade, reduced brown sugar, further dark sauced orchard fruit, a mild musty yeastiness, and plain earthy, leafy, and floral noble hop bitters. The taste is more incredibly saccharine caramel and toffee malt, a sort of free-range molasses/brown sugary thing, floral honey, indistinct boozed-up black stone fruit, and still innocuous leafy and earthy hops.

The carbonation is quite low and hard to really nail down by any sort of measure, the body a decent sugar-bolstered medium weight, and smooth, sure, but clammy and cloying at the same rate. It finishes sweet - the caramel and friends malt, fruit, and various other sugary aspects not to be denied their running of the table.

Gah - not a bad-tasting beer, to be fair, but man, they need to dial down the sugary character here - English strong ales certainly have their share of that attribute, but usually it is at least countered by some fruity, yeasty, or tame hoppy offset. Not in this one I'm afraid - excuse me, I'll be in the bathroom scraping my tongue.