Moon Dust
Bearded Iris Brewing

 

 

 

This is the best beer I’ve ever had.

 

Tasted in a Rastal Teku from a one pint can on October 3, 2019. Brewed in collaboration with WeldWerks Brewing Company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expected a little more given the brewery combo, but still a solid beer and enjoyable drinking experience.

Deep, ultra-dark brown body with only a faint hot chocolate head and faint spots of lacing. Looks a little thinner than I hoped.

Smell is huge roasted malt and dark coffee. Really not getting distinctive marshmallow or graham cracker notes at all, though there’s certainly a creamy lactose element and a good dose of dark chocolate. Not particularly deep or multi-layered, but it smells good.

Taste is all sweet milk stout, very good and drinkable, but not really matching the moon pie description. Espresso, sweet cream, bakers chocolate. Earthy, grainy, with some dark fruit notes. Definitely sweet, but not really full pastry stout territory. Sweet milk stout all the way, and a nice take on the category.

Feel is a touch thicker than it looks, but certainly not viscous or chewy. Minimal carbonation. Very smooth.

You need to like coffee, cream, and a healthy sweetness to like this one. And I do.

 

Thanks goes out to Buck89 for this brew.

16 oz. Can
Canned On: 05/30/18

Poured into a Trilium glass a pretty nice dark brow color, pretty nice carbonation, with a pretty nice thick/creamy/quick/fizzy one-finger tan head, which also leaves minimal sticky lacing behind. The nose is malty, with a nice touch of chocolate, toffee, some vanilla, slight licorice. The taste is very nice, malty, with a very nice chocolate/toffee note, nice vanilla, some licorice, very nice sweetness. Medium body, ABV hidden very well. Overall, a very nice brew. Thanks John!

 

 

 

Two of the most trendy beers that are currently going are the smoothie IPA and the pastry stout. Bearded Iris usually prefers the former, but they've taken a step back from their hazy ways and teamed up with Weldwerks for a stout that's modeled after the always popular moon pie lunchbox treats.

Dark and cloudy brown, the imperial milk stout pours a shade off of black. But taking on the proportions of moon pies, Moon Dust loses its froth and wafts over the senses with marshmallow, vanilla, coffee, chocolate and a sense of peppery cola. Sweet to taste, the chocolate, sweet cream and toasted malts bring a sense of graham cracker that resonates on the early palate.

The middle palate easily forgets about the stout underpinnings as the sweet and savory malts overtake much of the coffee roast and has the taste trending sweet with cappuccino instead. Honey, toast, chocolate and cola swirl on the tastebuds and fold in the soothing spice of vanilla, whipping cream and caramel until the late palate comes together with the striking spot on taste of cola floats.

Full bodied with with a spice of kahlua, the dessert-like flavors keep rolling off of the dark and decadent ale and saturate the palate fully with a linger of sweetness. Low carbonation creates a heavy cask-like feel that applies a lush and velvety texture to assist in that moon pie meets cola float intent.

 

Poured into a snifter. This one had the expected opaque dark brown color with a thick and long-lasting tan head. Aromas of milk chocolate, vanilla, and marshmallow. The chocolate dominated, keeping the nose from being too sweet. Sweeter marshmallow and vanilla notes were there on the taste, but they were balanced with a nice bitter chocolate aspect. I didn't get much graham cracker, but I did find this to be fairly well-balanced with the bitter chocolate taste. No floral hoppy RIS notes which kept this one very dessert-like. This is very sweet and somewhat heavy as expected in a big milk stout, with a marshmallow finish that was not too over-the-top. Overall I found this one to be well-crafted and enjoyable.