(W-Vl, BELGIUM) – Here is a beer description/review of

Struise De Molen Black Damnation

as snatched from the Buckets to Barrels blog on the Struise site:

“Black Damnation is a blend of 2/3 Black Albert and 1/3 De Molen Hel & Verdoemenis. These two beers complement each other so well. The BA gave the combination a beautiful thick creamy head and the H&V made the already dark head take on an even darker shade of brown. The aroma was heavily influenced by the hoppy characteristics of BA but was huge and rich like H&V with an excellent blending of sweetness and coffee with tones of slight vanilla and cherry that was absolutely heaven. The flavour was very complicated with the spiciness of H&V with the hop spice apparent in BA created an almost spicy hot beer flavour with lots of bakers chocolate, two kinds of coffee flavor, cherry, very rich and no noticeable signs of alcohol in this estimated 12% ABV beer, to say the least it was a little mind blowing.”

Black Damnation has a 4.21 average score so far at RateBeer and it has a chance to enter the top 50 at some point. There are already some ISO threads out there as this will only be sold at De Molen’s shop in Amsterdam. Hope that the US folks have done their international networking. Otherwise, your only shot would probably be if Shelton Brothers can secure some for the states . . . or maybe a few bottles will show up at Ebenezers Pub or the new Pannepot Cafe (both in Maine).

The release date is shown as April 10 on the Struise site and April 12 on the De Molen site so it is safe to say that you should probably try to get your batch this weekend. Indications are that it will not be on sale online at the Struise site.

Oh, and they were recently at it again with San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery and the Home Brew Chef. It “will be a dark strong Belgian beer with aggressive hopping.” No inclination yet as to whether this collaboration beer will make it to the States but it looks like the 21st Amendment will have additional updates on its blog.

Finally, a note from Bremaster, Urbain Coutteau, on Facebook in regards to moving brewhouse equipment to Maine for the new Pannepot Cafe: “I will be flying with Peter to Brunswick on the 11th of May. The goal is to install the brew house and other related parts within a week from then. The second week, we will be testing the brew house. If anybody feels the need to come out there and give us a hand, you are mostly welcome.”