Lunar Incantations Vol. II
Wayfinder Beer

 

Look: dark brown with a tan pillowy head, no lacing
Smell: piney, peach, berries
Taste: berries, peach, pine, grapefruit, resin, coconut
Feel: med body, mod carbo
Overall: 6.8% abv.

 

 

Look: Black as night with a billowing tan head that refuses to settle, albeit relenting eventually and leaving a coating of lacing behind

Aroma: Pine needles and sap, pink grapefruit, crushed fir needles, raspberry and blackberry, Cannabis, light chocolate notes, and peaches

Taste: Opens up with dark chocolate that holds for second before conifer and citrus storm on in. Dank, berries, and peaches come next and these blend well with the pine/citrus while going back and forth with chocolate throughout. Closes with more citrus, pine, and a nice bite

Mouthfeel: Full, smooth, clean, medium-high carbonation, and lightly dry on the finish

Overall: This is some good stuff. A new one for me and an easy buy as I’m a sucker for CDA/Black IPAs and this is a fine example of one. A lot of chocolate in play but no roast, which is just fine as sometimes it can clash with the hops, IMO. A great citrus/conifer/peach/dank/berry blend of hops too and all in balance. Tasty, well-made, and recommended

2025-03-30
16oz can served in a big snifter. Can is dated 01/24/25.

Pours stout black. Medium sized head, thick ring and thin dusting after some settling time, lots of carbonation. Smell is roasty nutty toffee and pine and grapefruit.

Taste is definitely on the bitter side, at first I thought it was serious roast bitterness and then I was convinced it was hop bitterness...and now I can't decide. There's a lot of both. Pine and grapefruit and honeysuckle with burnt coffee.

Mouthfeel is medium, slightly chalky. Really nice beer.

 

Poured into a Seattle Beer Week pint glass. Pours a very dark walnut brown with little light transmission and a quarter finger khaki head with good retention and nice lacing. Aroma of dark toasted malt, citrus and piney hops, pine, lemon and some dankness. Flavor is pale and toasted malt, piney and dank hops, pine needles, smoke, very light mixed light stone fruit, lemon and a little dankness; pine bough campfire finish. Medium bodied with light to moderate creaminess. A quite nice piney Cascadian dark. It has good IPA qualities of the Northwest style and a very pleasant smoky malt base. One of the better Cascadians I've had in the last year. The stone fruit is not detectable in most of the taste, but adds a nice note to the finish to balance the dark smokiness and pine. I really liked this one.

 

16oz can

Pours three massive fingers of light brown head into my Willi. Retention is nice. Lacing is really good. Body is black. Looks great.

Nose has a citrus hop character with underlying notes of roast and chocolate. Smells good but I’m not a fan of citrusy black IPA’s, I don’t think it pairs well.

Flavor is pretty odd. Light citrus, but watery, burnt malt is what I mostly take away from this. Idk it’s ok, but not very good, nor what I would expect of the style at all.

Carbonation is medium-low. Relatively light bodied. No noticeable sweetness. Bitterness is modest. Overall the mouthfeel is ok but gets thin over time.

Drinkability is ok.

The beer is leaving a lot to be desired, once the out of place roast fades, the flavor is borderline bland. Overall subpar.