This is one of De Molen’s Boreft Festival beers from late last year. Each year at their festival, the guys brew 20+ different beers as one-offs. Very rarely are any of them ever seen again, such is the creative nature of De Molen’s former home-brewer owners.
The beer is described as an Imperial Banana Choco Porter. But no bananas were harmed in the making of this beer!
It is an imperial porter with cocoa added into the mix. The beer has a really creamy, unctuous feel, like a banana smoothy does (suggestive thinking). But as the beer warms, the roasted malts come out of hiding, along with dark, bitter chocolate and the slightest coffee note.
There is a medium-high carbonation, which adds a little prickly feeling on the tongue, with a solid hop bitterness as well. The banana comes in the form of esters from the yeast. An interesting beer that hides its alcohol really well.
And the name? It translates as ‘Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’. Look for the three wise monkeys on the label.