VUUR & VLAM

IT’S OUR SECOND BIRTHDAY TODAY AND WE’VE STUMBLED ACROSS A BEAUT! AND IT’S ONLY GORN AND BROKEN INTO THE TOP TEN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US.

VUUR & VLAM

BREWER: Brouwerij de Molen, South Holland  

STYLE: IPA

ABV: 6.2%

VESSEL: 33cl bottle

TWITTER: @molenbier 

INSTAGRAM: molenbier

 

JYMI SAY’S…

Our label has an abundance of information about this beer for us to absorb, and all very precise. We’re told to drink at 7º Celsius. We’re informed that pils and caramel malts are used. We’re told the bitter cascade hop is used as well as the dry hops of Amarillo, Columbus, Chinook and Citra. We’re informed that it is an unpasteurised and strong beer, backed up by the fact that 6.2 alc./vol. is also mentioned. We’re told we have an EBC (colour) measurement of 21 and an EBU (bitterness) measurement of 63. We also have the English translation of Vuur & Vlam given too us… Fire & Flames. But once we get to the bottom of our label we are finally told what type of beer this is. It’s an IPA. But oddly this South Holland brewer has stuck ISH just after the description. Not particularly precise.

India Pale Ale – ish ? How very odd.

But to be honest once I’d opened the bottle and had a good ol’ sniff and a large ol’ gulp I couldn’t have given two hoots about the ish thing because what I had in front of me was an finely packaged ale that smelled fantastic and tasted great, really really great.

The nose was one of beautiful caramel which I would never bore of and the taste is a tropical caramel delight. Texture wise even though V&V is highly carbonated it is also somehow wildly smooth.

My one criticism is that it is just lacking a little bit of umph. Possibly lacking, ironically you could say, Fire & Flames…

This is a genuinely wonderful beer and with just a little injection of F&F it would have blown the roof of the MOB testing hut clean off.

Jymi’s Rating: 85%

 

SAMMY SAY’S…

There are lively beers and then there are lively beers. Vuur and Vlam is a lively beer. Actually, it is more alive than a dog on heat. And we all know how lively that can be (cue memories of your neighbour’s dog awkwardly humping your leg as you casually try to shake it off both literally and socially). The head keeps on growing in the glass – more so than any other beer that I’ve seen before. You have to be careful that you don’t lose this one to its head. As the saying goes, its gone to its head.
Besides its liveliness, the story of this Vuur and Vlam is one of caramel. It’s caramel in colour, it’s caramel on the nose and it’s caramel on the palate. And behind the caramel and liveliness, is a refreshing quencher that manages your thirst like ice-cold water does on a hot summer’s day.
Vuur and Vlam is a versatile beer and,dangerously, its alcohol content is masked by the clever brew used on this ale. Although some may view its lack of bitter follow through, I see this as a strength of the beer. It gives it that refreshing feeling mentioned earlier on.
It’s fair to say that I really like this beer. It has so much going for it and, I believe, that it would satisfy many-a-beer drinker. Vuur and Vlam sits well in the world of beers. As Jymi said, “Very good beer that”.
Job done.

 

Sammy’s Rating: 86%

 

MUSE ON BOOZE RATING: 85.5%

 

MOB review next weekend: SECRET DES MOINES by BRASSERIE GOUDALE

SDM PRE

NEXT MONTH, THE MOB SQUAD TRIAL BEGINS

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: