One of the many binomial beers from first-rate Dutch micro De Molen, I knew absolutely nothing about Donder & Bliksem before I opened it. The name, however, had me expecting a high dose of drama. What I got was an orange coloured pale ale which smelled of little and tasted of even less. That can't be right, I thought.So I left it a while to warm up to see if anything interesting was going to happen. The flavour which developed was very much that of an English pale ale, with those earthy orange-pith flavoured hops. Bottle conditioning has left a mild aroma which smells primarily of yeast. Light-bodied and very drinkable, it'd be a great quaffer if it wasn't so strong, at 5.9% ABV. A solid pale ale and hard to fault; it's just that the presence of thunder god Thor on the label is pure false advertising.
Is that really Thor on the label? Looks more like Jesus with a hammer to me. Looks like he'd struggle to produce so much as a spark. So maybe the advertising is entirely accurate, after all?
ReplyDeleteThere aren't many temples to Thor where I live, so I can't really comment on the iconography. Maybe this is how Thor appears to his Dutch worshippers. You people don't have a monopoly on weather gods, you know.
ReplyDeleteI work with a guy named Thor!
ReplyDeleteIs there, by chance, a sorting of your reviews that is sorted out by where the beer is brewed?
Sorry Michael, it's a search-don't-sort situation. How very Google :P
ReplyDeleteIt says "ondergistend" on the label, so it can't be an ale, can it?
ReplyDeleteI think it's nice, by the way, that Menno does bottom-fermenting beers too. That's one of the differences between Dutch and Belgian craft brewers.
I guess not. Amber lager/pale ale: same difference.
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