De Molen Back & Future (Borefts'24) fles 33cl

Back & Future (Borefts'24)

Wat als De Molen & Menno Olivier weer samen komen voor Borefts 2024 en het 20 jarig bestaand van De Molen? Het eindresultaat is deze stevige Imperial Gose met framboos. De framboos zorgt, naast zijn herkenbare smaken en aroma’s, voor een licht zoetje dat goed als tegenhanger werkt voor het zure karakter. Dit samen zorgt er voor dat het een heel doordrinkbaar bier is geworden.

• Smaakpalet: Framboos, zuur en fris
• Heerlijk bij: Vis salades, (gerookte) visgerechten en sushi
• Het lekkerste op temperatuur: 7 graden Celsius

Beer review (EN): 

Back & Future 

 Back and Future indeed! What a blast from the past we have here with De Molen teaming up with one of the OGs: Menno! When I say OG, I mean it- Menno is the founder of De Molen, so I hope we can all raise a glass of this to him- for the 20 years of bloody good beer he set in motion, and to many more years of it in the future. To infinity and beyond! Oh sorry, wrong movie franchise…ahem.

Menno, having made the sensible decision to move to warmer climes, now brews ‘Catalan beer with a Dutch character’, and I’m assuming sees a lot more vitamin D than the rest of us. As someone who was lucky enough to experience some of the best Catalan beer on trips with De Molen, and at last year’s Borefts, I’m very excited to see what this beer brings- beyond the fabulous art on the label. Raspberry and wheat in a sour sound like a very interesting combination to me, so let’s get moving before that DeLorean breaks again.

My first impression was that the smell is very raspberry- almost like raspberry sweets I ate as a child. There is mustiness and astringency through, the former from the wheat and the latter (I assume) from the raspberries, which is proven upon first taste to be 100% real (as if we would ever expect anything else from De Molen ;) ). There are some lovely, very sour notes on top, but a pleasantly full taste for the rest of it with a tiny bit of a numb feeling on the top of my mouth I associate with raspberries. This is probably just me and my tastebuds, so nothing for anyone to worry about!

The texture of the raspberry is captured really well, and the final taste and aftertaste leave you feeling like you must have actually just eaten one. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is left really wanting more of the fruitiness- truly like the real thing.

It would be remiss of me if I did not also wax lyrical about the qualities the wheat brings into this beer. It adds a lovely creaminess and a slight brightness and citrus element as it does in so many of the best Belgian multigrain beers. It truly reminds me of one of my favourite beers of all time- a wheatwine from The Bruery’s Terroir Project which I imbibed far too much of in the cold, Scottish March of 2018 at the back of an [UNNAMED] chain of craft beer bars.  Little wonder, though, that this is the summer equivalent of that white chocolate, raspberry concoction which knocked my wallet and me off our feet. Would it be a dream if I could put them both in a tasting line up? Absolutely, but until then I’ll just order more of these.

This is a lovely take on a gose, characteristically with more haze than something like a straight up lambic. The mouthfeel and texture really go a long way to cracking the dryness of real raspberries and making this a real delight. I’m already excited for summer and taking this out with bowls of fresh fruit for a picnic, but I suppose until then, we’ll always have Barcelona.