Smoked and chilli spiced barley wine, another creative invention of De Molen, one of the most exciting breweries of the Low Countries. Beautiful deep ruby colour with slightly orangey hue, a bit hazy, under a loose, milky and creamy, yellowish beige head retaining well but only around the edges. Aroma dominated by spicy barbecue sausages and smoked bacon, along with much more subtle hints of roasted chestnuts, bayleaf, peated whisky, lime, dried leaves, vanilla, banana, candied cherries, Cayenne pepper and smoked paprika, port, fine cognac and medlar; the more I smell it, the more refined and perfumey aromas come through the initial smoked odour. Taste sets off with a tangy candied sweetness, almost like a bonbon, promising a sweet and smooth barley wine palate to come, but then you get hit by the smokiness, reminiscent of bacon and tobacco, yet still managing to stay elegant and blending in perfectly with the candied barley wine sweetness. After a gentle lemony acidity, ever so brief but adding to the whole, a deep, full, rich, multi-layered maltiness follows adorned with a ’deep’ rye spiciness, creamy and satisfying, with a vinous mouthfeel; carbonation is soft, but the tongue is tickled by little stings of alcohol already at an early stage. Finish is very complex, very vinous and very rewarding: a beautiful play of rich chocolatey, smokey and caramelly malts, a bitter and long peppery hops accent but in an ’English’ rather than ’American’ way, warming rhum- and brandy-like alcohol and, last but not least, a refreshing burn of chili peppers (two varieties have apparently been used) accompanying the spicy hops bitterness till deep into your system, and yet somehow managing to remain perfectly in place. All these things, however very different, form a perfectly elegant whole. This is beer at Michelin-starred restaurant level: liquid artwork, perhaps more than I bargained for on a quiet Sunday afternoon tasting. This kind of intense and flavour-packed, yet still very well balanced beers would be my ideal companion on a frosty winter evening, but it’s just as good on a spring afternoon. It has everything: sweet in a refined way, sourish accent, smokey umami flavours, long lasting bitterness in the end. I am in awe... After a few misfits in this genre, I had decided that chilli spiced beers are not for me, but this one is so well made it makes me doubt that statement once again - and these kind of philosophies are exactly what makes craft brewing so infinitely interesting. Big cheers to De Molen - once again...