Hel & Verdoemenis 666 - Brouwerij De Molen

PeprSprYoFace

California

4.68/5  rDev +10.4%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

Thanks for the opportunity for this one Digita7693.

Poured into my Cigar City Snifter. Just a ring of head with some film and little lacing. Super black. I thought the bottle was brown until it was poured and revealed green. Nice little 180ml bottle.

Aroma is awesome. Super roasty and bitter chocolaty. Nice

Taste is nice and roasty with a nice caramel sweetness. Very smooth and tasty.

Mouthfeel is good. Very smooth. Low carb.

Overall a very tasty brew and I like the idea for the 666th batch. Cool label and stuff. Glad I got to try this.

Serving type: bottle

04-16-2011 06:32:27 | More by PeprSprYoFace

Thorpe429

Illinois

4.47/5  rDev +5.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Thanks to Brad for sharing this little bottle. Bottle #599. Served in a Bruery tulip.

Holy hell, the nose on this thing is fantastic. Poured black with a very thin mocha head that quickly went away. Nose is fantastic and so incredibly smooth. There is a very large chocolate presence and quite a bit of barrel character. There is a bit of booze in the background as well as some roasted malt. The taste is big on the chocolate and barrel aspects with a slightly-oaked finish. Good fudge throughout. No booze or heat in the finish. Medium body. Really, wow. Big, big fan of this.

Serving type: bottle

04-12-2011 17:55:59 | More by Thorpe429

Huhzubendah

District of Columbia

4.53/5  rDev +6.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

Bottle shared by ygtbsm94. Thanks Brad!

The number of this beast: 599

The beer appears dark brown with a thin, beige head. The aroma is absolutely fantastic. 40 year old cognac barrels...wow. Loving this. Roast and spirits with subtle notes of barrels. Simply fantastic beer. Phenomenal feel with alcohol content a non factor. What a treat. Highly recommended.

Serving type: bottle

04-09-2011 06:28:38 | More by Huhzubendah

Jeffo

Netherlands

4.55/5  rDev +7.3%
look: 3 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4.5

Originally had this about a year ago and it was completely flat. I can't stand flat beer, and despite this, I still scored it a C+. It showed a lot of potential. Since then I've been holding out hope that we'd meet again.

De Bierkoning in Amsterdam came across a box of nips while doing inventory a few weeks back, so I quickly ran down and grabbed a couple before they vanished. As soon as we opened the bottle and heard the magic sound, I got ready for a long awaited re-review.

From a 18cl bottle into a snifter
vintage: 2010

APPEARANCE: Pours dark brown and yields a small, dark tan or mocha colored head that appears out of nowhere. Head fades relatively quickly to a wisp and ring. Black body, though relatively transparent, with medium carbonation evident. A ring remains until the end and leaves touches of lacing down the glass.

SMELL: Smells wonderful. Roasted malt, dark baker's chocolate and lots of oak notes. The cognac is definitely present, with light hints of vanilla as well. Bold and enticing, with plenty of well-measured cognac and oak aromas.

TASTE: Very tasty. Carbonation has really helped this brew. Roasted malts, dark baker's chocolate again, as well as lots of oak and cognac. Caramel notes, vanilla, and a good dose of booze in there as well. The aging is very present for sure. Aftertaste is bold and persistent with lots of oak, cognac, and dark chocolate flavors. Very tasty and enjoyable. One of De Molen's best.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. Slightly lighter on the palate, though nicely creamy as well. Goes down fine with a bit of heat on the swallow and finishes slightly mouth-coating. Very glad this one is carbonated. What a world of difference.

OVERALL: A stellar brew. Wonderful aroma and flavor. The first bottle I had about a year ago showed lots of potential, but it just needed a little carbonation. Well, this bottle realized that potential. It is a little light in body, both in the look and feel, but those are minor drawbacks on what is otherwise a top notch offering from De Molen. Was very glad to have come across this brew again. It was worth the wait.

EDIT: Trying this one next to a H&V MacAllan BA and I have to give the slight nod to the MacAllan. Both are phenomenal brews though.

Serving type: bottle

02-09-2011 11:44:37 | More by Jeffo

Halcyondays

California

3.13/5  rDev -26.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.5

On-tap at Beachwood BBQ, said it was just the regular on the board, but they mentioned the cognac so I'm going with this,

A: Pours black with a wispy off-white head, fair retention.

S: Definite chocolate and oak with an intriguing spiritious quality.

T: Dark malt is the main flavour with good portion of wood, a nice flavour, but the beer quickly gets taken over by the ethanol and brandy flavours. This may have been good in the background, and while the beer still tastes all right it's not thrilling me.

M: Full-bodied, light carbonation, again dominated by heat/ethanol.

D: Certainly something that needs some aging to mellow out. It has good potential, but right now it's not the best of beers.

Serving type: on-tap

01-03-2011 21:12:43 | More by Halcyondays

jrallen34

Illinois

3.88/5  rDev -8.5%
look: 2.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

18cl bottle poured into my Darkness glass, picked up in Gent...Dark brown pour with no carbonation, no lacing...Very strong aroma, lots of alcohol, heat of the cognac, char, and lightly bitter chocolate. Its ok, but I'm not hopeful...The taste almost saves this beer, tones down the alcohol, albeit sill present. Wood on the finish and the feel if that makes sense. The more I drink the more the cognac comes out, makes this a really smooth feel and finish, but still alcoholy. Light coffee comes through to balance. I am not very familiar with cognac so its a little hard to judge this beer, as it is breaming with it in the aroma and taste. The more I drink though the more I like it, especially the cognac, makes me want to search out similar beers, however, to find more made with 40 year old cognac is going to be hard.

Serving type: bottle

12-03-2010 03:03:23 | More by jrallen34

STEG

New York

4.55/5  rDev +7.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

750ml Black waxed (silly puttyed?) Corked and caged utterly sinister bottle courtesty of redtailjet. Thanks so much for this man!

Poured into an oversized ridel bordeaux glass.

Pitch black beer with a small one finger espresso foam colored head that has moderate retention but disappates after about 2 minutes into a fine foam with a collar of fine bubbles. Swirling the glass leaves some nice lacing but no real lacing stays around as the beer goes away.

Smells of coffee, bakers chocolate, dark chocolate with some anise, oak, an underlying boozy smell most likely from the cognac. A bit hot on the nose as well.

Taste is intense, bitter chocolate, bitter coffee, smoke, slight licorice. Aftertaste has a lingering vinous heat, almost like alcoholic grape juice finish.

Mouthfeel is silky and slightly hot on the finish, mild carbonation kicks in at the very end.

Overall an outstanding beer a different take on an RIS but extremely well executed and worth the difficulty to get. I will be aging the second bottle to see how it holds up. It was the exact opposite of the first regular HV I had, this is going away far to quickly, I will miss it dearly.

Serving type: bottle

12-01-2010 03:27:14 | More by STEG

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

4.15/5  rDev -2.1%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

250 ml bottle from Sven in Denmark. Opaque with creamy reddish-brown head, 1/16" retaining. The aromas are insane, malty rich chocolate, and may be cognac and coffee. A cascade of lacing drops are artistically splayed on the glass. Thick, cognac coffee, boozy.Rich aftertaste in back of throat, alcohol on lips.

Serving type: bottle

11-09-2010 04:28:37 | More by northyorksammy

Phyl21ca

Quebec (Canada)

4/5  rDev -5.7%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

Bottle: Poured a pitch-black color stout with a tiny dark brown bubbly head with no retention or lacing. Aroma of light whiskey notes with some sweet notes. Taste is also dominated by whiskey notes with no alcohol being apparent and light dry roasted notes barely noticeable. Body is about average with almost no carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Barrel-aging was really well executed with no apparent alcohol and a creamy warming texture that I really appreciated.

Serving type: bottle

09-18-2010 02:30:03 | More by Phyl21ca

mikesgroove

South Carolina

4.43/5  rDev +4.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

This little bottle. I had wondered aloud in my house about it for months. It just looks pure evil and boy was it ever. What are these things like 5oz? We split this, me and Rich in two tiny snifters as I did not want a bottle this special to be wasted on myself. Late night crew on 07/04/2010.

The darkest pour I had seen all week. Just pitch black and oily. Thick as a milkshake with a small head of tan that barely covered the top of the glass but did leave some really nice lacing down the sides as we went through the session. I let it linger for a few moments and went in to take a sip, what I find is a wonderful blend of vanilla, oak, hints of roasted malts, burnt and bitter dark chocolate. Just immensely rich. Coffee coming at me now with a long, long and drawn out flavor that is really grabbing at the palate. Vanilla swirls in, tobacco, hints of molasses and really robust chocolate underlying it all. This was the beast of stouts. So dark and rich, foreboding and yet immensely complex. It took nearly 30 minutes before you could really appreciate what we had here. A wonderful, and truly unique take on a barrel aged stout.

Overall dark, evil, enlightening I will take it all in. This was an amazing beer, I only wish I could have had a little more of it.

Serving type: bottle

07-09-2010 23:19:01 | More by mikesgroove

weissbierdrinker

Belgium

4.72/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

Pours a very thick oily black with a tan head that hangs around for a long time. Carbonation seems lively.

Smell is of wet wood, cognac (I wonder if I would smell that if I didn't know it was there), some hoppy notes, burnt chocolate.

Taste is of vanilla bean, definitely cognac, dark chocolate, warming alcohol (not harsh at all adds a very pleasant feeling to the beer). Smooth and sweet with a slightly hoppy note to it. Finish is of roasted malts. Mouthfeel is think and oily. Lots of big malty notes.

I'm pretty sure I just became a big fan of this beer. The cognac sweetness and light warming alcohol combined with the dark chocolate and burnt flavors really blend together nicely making a very drinkable RIS. I don't find this one a chore to finish. After a big hardy meal this would be an excellent desert beer. I don't find this to be a big huge overpowering smack in the face RIS, instead it's more subtle, seems well thought out, really allowing you to just sit and enjoy it.

Serving type: bottle

05-24-2010 14:00:03 | More by weissbierdrinker

digita7693

Oregon

3.98/5  rDev -6.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Note: this is not the same as Hel & Verdoemenis, from the brewer this is "Batch 666 was H&V with added woodchips soaked in a 40 year old cognac"
Bought a couple small bottles that were on offer at pré ZBF. .2l bottles.

A very very dark, no head at all

S chocolate, wood, whiskey(cognac i guess)

T this is a very smooth drinking IS, nice chocolate taste, and a warming alcohol cognac taste at the end. Very nice, sort of a digestif version of an IS.

D I wish there was some carbonation in this, but thats ok, it makes it a different drink, almost, like I said, a digestif version of an IS. I dont think I could drink a ton of this, but after a meal .2l is perfect!

Serving type: bottle

03-09-2010 18:59:37 | More by digita7693