Mols Øl
WinterCoat

At Copenhagen Beer Festival 2011. Hazy brown colour. Aroma and flavour of smoke, wood, juniper and wild thyme. Might be said to be interesting, but not really great. More smoke than I expected.

This brew poured out as a murky brownish color with a very thin head on top. The look of it is a little watery. There isn't really any lacing here or retention. The smell of the beer gives off lots of really interesting herbal aromas, things that are a little hard to identify. The taste is the same way, lots of really enjoyable flavors from start to finish here. The mouthfeel is a little too flat in my opinion from the cask, it's a smooth beer but it's almost too smooth I think. Overall I'd like to try this on tap or from a bottle just to see how it is with some extra carbonation to it.

On tap at Churchkey.

Pours a moderately dark ruby brown with a tight tan head. Not much lacing as it moves down the glass. Nose brings forth juniper and some other seasoning. From the description, I assume thyme, although I can really only pick it out as one of those Thanksgiving seasonings. Really starts to resemble gin a bit as it warms up. Taste is mostly a hint of juniper with a bit of sweet bread in the background. Nothing terribly complex going on. Thin and a bit dry with low carbonation. I generally am a pretty big fan of gruits, but this one really didn't cut it for me--not enough going on and the flavors didn't really work together, in my opinion.

Had a pint for $3.50 (1/2 price happy hour) at Tap and Table of the firkin. As usual for the style, this was an interesting gruit. The aroma smelled just like cherry juice at first, then it turned into a light spring spice mixture. The flavor was heavy with leather and smoked flavor with hints of fruit esters. Overall, this is a very earthy and interesting beer. Not your average pint and certainly worth a try.

Poured out of the cask as kind of a dirty puddle looking brown color with a subdued head. Far from the prettiest beer I have seen, but still more attractive than a light macro lager. The smell is malty with some interesting herbal and wood notes, the malt seems to dominate the nose though. Wow, can a beer taste fascinating? This is one of the stranger beers I have tried to date. It has a malty profile with plenty of brown sugary like sweetness, but it's the wood in this thing is intriguing. Far from the traditional oak aged flavor, the wood in this beer tastes sharp and sweetish. Herbal hops are also evident. Supposedly they use wheat, rye and oats in this beer as well as barley, but I am having a hard time picking those aspects out. Also, really not getting much if any thyme. For as much as this beer has going on, the flavors really are well integrated. Mouthfeel is medium with light carbonation that one would expect from a cask. I find this to be a fairly drinkable beer, and though it is interesting and I am glad I tried it, I would not necessarily seek this one out.

Had the pleasure of having this on tap at the Tap and Table, Emmaus, Pa., Feb. 18 2010.

Arrives on the table in a tulip, the TnT is dark so I think it's a beautiful red amber color, small head retention. Smells amazing and fresh, something herbal other than hops is here.

Nice full smooth mouthfeel, not overly carbonated, taste is not bitter but fresh,herbal, wow, what a nice balance!

On the Winter Coat website it says the addaed fresh wild thyme and strained the wort thru juniper branches, making this an old traditional Scandinavian beer.

I loved it, would drink it every day and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for something different, yet as ancient as homebrewing itself.

Nice cask serving, a bit shy early on but a pleasing complexity of peaty, funky and fruity flavors does emerge solidly halfway through holding the brew rather well.

Presentation: 12 oz cask serving. Menu offers a short but fair description noting complexity, uniqueness of the brew and warning that "it is certainly not for everybody but if you are looking for something different look no further". Notes Alc. by Vol. (6.2%) Served on a tumbler glass.

A - Deep amber brown pour, clear at the bottom hazy on top... with a generous frothy head, medium retention and some lacing.

S - Subtle and tamed sweet and fruity notes. Pleasing but nothing remarkable.

T - The taste gets rolling exactly as the nose predicted with a generic fruity sense, sweet character and notes of herbs. Before reaching the midpoint the brew starts to expand its vocabulary with emerging notes of peat, funk and smoke, and earthy peat again. It's not assertive but not bland at all, and by now has a very pleasing range.

M - Medium body with gentle, soft carbonation, and a smooth finish.

D - Nice cask offering, well presented in this incarnation, it would be a bit short as a sipper but it sure is one to be enjoyed with some time.

Notes: A rare treat... For a bit it feels lacking a bit of character under a pleasing generic sense, but not too late the range sure is there and makes the experience rather enjoyable.

Reviewed from my notes. Hand pumped from a cask at Novare Res. The beer is a deep purple color with a soapy tan head. I am watching the head dissolve in front of me. There is some rising carbonation. It has a great cask beer look. I am not picking up much in the way of an aroma, just some slight woodsy notes. I can detect flavors of rye, plum, whiskey and a bite of alcohol. There may be some juniper in the mix as well. It's a very complex beer. It has a medium body and not a very significant mouth coat. As for carbonation...let's say if a beer with a lot of carbonation was like a huge mountain range, the Mols Øl is like some rolling hills; it's not a flat beer, but it isn't that difficult stomach [I'm not sure that analogy makes much sense now, but when I wrote it in my notebook I thought it was a good comparison]. This beer is not exactly what I was expecting from a Danish casked beer. The spices and complexity makes it hard to drink fast--I want to give each sip a lot of attention--yes it is still pretty drinkable.

Had this beer on draft at Churchkey in D.C. I had a hard time locating the right brewery for this beer but I finally have. From the brewery's website, their description of the beer

"Mols Øl is the 2nd WinterCoat beer inspired by a Danish locality, and containing special local ingredients. It is named for and inspired by the Mols peninsula, which was declared a national park in 2009. Mols has many microclimates, and therefore all types of grain are grown in a small area. Mols Øl has barley, wheat, rye and oat malts. Juniper branches are used to strain the mash, and wild thyme is added with the hops. The result is a beautiful reddish amber ale with a full-bodied malt flavor and a fresh herbal nose. The juniper gives Mols Øl a slightly sweet character, despite the low level of residual sugars"

Served in a tumbler glass on draft. Beer is brownish red, tight white head covers the top of the beer but is very thin. Small bubbles and carbonation is steady. Head persists as the beer is drunk. There is some lacing on the glass. Beer has a slight haze to it.

There isn't much in the way of aroma at all. I was expecting some kind of juniper flavor or gin like character to this beer. I've had other beers that used juniper but not as subtle as this beer. Based on the brewery's description I would say that its not surprising since they use the branches to filter the beer. Some sweetness, very little aroma to speak of.

Beer is "woodsy" but not in a bad way. There is some mild sweetness, not sure of the origin of that. I cannot detect the hops and now that I've read the description I do not detect any thyme either. Beer is a little thin, but drinkability is high. One of the better "gruit" ales I've had.