[6/24 Update: These beers are now available on store shelves.]

(Bodegraven, Netherlands) – The Sheltons are bringing another upper-echelon European beer to the states and this time not from Belgium, Denmark, or Norway…but from the Netherlands.

Says Shelton: “Every one of these beers will be from very limited production . . .. the brewery has only a 5 hl system — not much larger than a homebrewing set-up […] The beer is packaged and is almost ready to ship. It should be here in about a month, probably.” Shelton confirmed that Massachusetts will receive some of the supply.

Brouwerij de Molen is one of the top few breweries in the windmill country and the Shelton Brothers are importing a half-dozen specialty beers from them. The brewery earned a small dose of attention last week when it landed in RateBeer’s top 50 beer ratings for its Tsarina Esra Imperial Porter after a group of people posted their reviews from a tasting.

The most notable beer of the bunch coming overseas is the Rasputin Imperial Stout. According to British Guild of Beer Writer and beer blogger, Ron Pattinson, “[the brewer, Menno] brews it just once a year in very limited quantities. It’s wonderful stuff. You have about two weeks to get to Bodegraven, judging by the depleted shelves, if you want to try the 2007 vintage.” The label (see below) shows that the batch was only large enough to fit 499 bottles. It has not been confirmed whether all bottles will be hitting the states.

A few more notes on the beers. You won’t find a whole lot written about this brewery (in English, at least) outside of Pattinson’s blog. That’s because of two of the aforementioned beers were brewed to order for Pattinson, himself, who is quite into beer history: the Whitbread 1914 SSS (a “triple Stout”) and Porter, both based on recipes of the time (pre-WWI) before popularity in darker beers waned in London. Both appear to be limited bottlings as well. The other three beers are: Donder and Bliksem (means Thunder & Lightning in English), a pilsener; Storm & Averij (Storm & Damage), a double IPA; Pek & Veren (Tar & Feathers), a Smoked beer. Photos are included below.