Angst & Beven
Brouwerij De Molen

 

 

Barrel aged imperial gose with caramel malts and no salt. At first its a strange beast but, as you go down, very, very nice. Slightly sour, quite oaky, caramel and dark fruits... and NO SALT! Awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

330ml bottle. Imperial gose-ish, eh, and barrel-aged, coming in at near 25-proof - wait, what? I guess that's what will be causing any 'Fear & Trembling'.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium tarnished bronze amber colour, with one finger of weakly foamy, and mostly bubbly ecru head, which leaves a tiny bit of sea-spray lace around the glass as things dip away.

It smells of barrel-borne vanilla, caramel, and wet timber, mildly tart applesauce, soused raisins, earthy honey, coriander and a further indistinct herbal essence, and a riling perfumed booziness. The taste is rather sour apple, cherry, and lemon fruit, caramel and toffee malt, semi-sweet field honey, a soft grainy wheatiness, tart red wine, a lessened boozy Kentucky oak character, more softly earthy, herbal hops, bristling metallic alcohol, and perhaps the suggestion of umami-like saline.

The carbonation is pretty light and innocuous, the body a sturdy medium weight, fairly dense, and generally smooth, with minor creamy notes wafting about. It finishes on the sweet side, the caramel/toffee - from malt wood alike - warm vanilla, stocky fruit, and lingering booze hardly ceding an inch.

A decent barrel-aged, um, 'fruit' beer, is what this appears to be, if a rather complex one at that. The traditional notes of coriander and salt, while apparently conjured out of thin air in this offering, are tenuous at best here. At least they half-assedly admit that they're messing with a style here, and for that, De Molen can be forgiven.

330ml bottle poured into tulip 3/11/13

A almost clear dark amber, plenty of bubbles feeding a finger of foam that's gone after a couple sips leaving a few patches of lace

S caramel and vanilla, woody vinous notes, lots of sour apple, raisin, dried cherries, brown sugar, and some dark bread crust

T sour caramel apple, salt water toffee, oak and vanilla's still there, booze is well hidden, somewhat different to the nose but still solid, maybe just a little bourbon

M syrupy, slippery, mellow carbonation, no heat is surprising considering 12.2%, I can feel it in my chest, wood and apple after the fact

O interesting should count for something, strange beer but it works, I'm curious of the barrel choice

not what I was expecting that's for sure, then again I'm not all that sure what I was expecting. Perhaps a little to expensive to stock up on but I'm glad I tried it