Spice Boys
Refined Fool Brewing Co.

Bomber purchased at the brewery; no bottling date and served slightly chilled. Billed as a German dunkelweizen with cold brew coffee and muscovado sugar added.

Pours a clear amber bronze colour, crowned with one finger of tight, creamy, pale beige-tinged head; it lasts for a few minutes, soon reduced to a thin collar and some filmy wisps on the surface. Overpowering smell of coffee grounds on the nose, with underlying hints of dark bread, brown sugar and toasted grains; hints of clove become discernible as it warms. I like coffee as much as the next guy, but there's just no subtlety here, and it doesn't really remind me of a dunkelweizen either.

That carries over into the flavour profile too - lots of cold brew coffee at the forefront, interspersed with hints of brown sugar, bready/biscuity malts, wheaty grains and suggestions of spicy clove. Bitter coffee grounds persist into and dominate the spicy, faintly yeasty aftertaste. Medium-light in body, with assertive carbonation that prickles the palate enthusiastically with each sip; feels crisp and a little frothy in the mouth. Fair drinkability, with its 6% abv not being much of a factor, at least not 'til the back nine of the bottle.

Final Grade: 3.34, a B-. It doesn't often happen with coffee beers, but I gotta give Spice Boys a 'nope'. Don't get me wrong, it's not awful or anything, but I am not digging its watered-down cold brew coffee vibe, which largely runs roughshod over its underwhelming dark wheat beer base. One of those problems on their own might be tolerable, but together they do a good job of ruining the experience, which at the end of the day is nothing like any dunkelweizen I've ever had. If you really like cold brew coffee then you might still like this beer, but if you're seeking a German-style wheat beer (or even just a spiced ale), I don't think I'd recommend this.