Smells like good beer. Although I saw a few globs of somethin’ anuther’ flop down into my glass when it was poured, it smelled alright… I’m pretty sure I say “it smells alright” before I eat something way too often, let’s assume this is not one of those questionable instances that goes horribly awry. Hel & Verdoemenis (which translates to Hell & Damnation) by the brewers at De Molen is apparently the little brother beer to last weeks De Molen Heaven and Hell beer. Both beers seem to form translucent congealed globs in the bottom of the bottle, so I guess this should start to become expected, although I’ll never condone this happening. As far as what a smoked imperial stout aged in scotch whiskey barrels should taste like, SmokeBeerMinistry will point to this final product as a good example. I would ask De Molen to rethink the “enjoy within 25 years” statement printed on many labels that have gone out, but it seems that it has already been removed, perhaps because of the peculiar formations down in there? As for the taste, I taste whiskey, chocolate, smoke, peat, lots of booze, along with a slight sour stinging bitterness that only a barrel can impart, and I like it. The score would have been in the +6 area had the consistency held on, but the globs bumped into my lips towards the bottom of my glass so I had to bump the score down a notch. I’m glad to report that the De Molen Brouwerij that I know exists has delivered a beer of their caliber, if only they would go a little farther. Overall score = 5.5 smokestacks out of 7.

Here’s a link to the De Molen website list of beers:

http://brouwerijdemolen.nl/beers