New Beer Weekend #263

Moersleutel Beer Engineers (Netherlands) ‘Pastry Factory’ Coconut Coffee Barley Wine

Canned on 4/3/2025, 4 months to the lip.

Dripped at room temp into a can glass.

Handsome orange spongebob foam tops reddish brown brew.

Nothing but a whisp of caramel and alcohol on the nose.

Taste. Thick. Cardiac syrup rich. There’s coconut in here? No.,. Coffee? Yeah. I taste it. Drinks above 10% abv.,

Mouth is hot sticky sweet. Urp of carbo.

Overall, if ya got a sweet tooth, this mfkr will make it ring and getcha heart beating boom boom boom.,.

 

My second new beer of the weekend, this one also from the good people at Fremont Brewing. Rusty Nail Double Barrel checks all the right boxes for me—this is good stuff. Definitely a dessert/sipper of a beer. Preliminary review below. Cheers!
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4.6/5 rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

375mL bottle (2025 vintage) into a tulip. Pours a thick, completely opaque oily black with a thin reddish mocha head. This is how I like my imperial stouts to look.

Aroma is dense and earthy—literally almost smells like rich, fertile soil, in a good way. Bitter dark roasted malt, espresso, dark chocolate, cinnamon, caramel, vanilla, bourbon.

Taste likewise leads off with dense, chewy bittersweet chocolate followed quickly by a strong hit of hot cinnamon, then caramel, vanilla, and all the rest. Boozy heat on the finish. This is potent stuff—a little bit goes a long way.

Mouthfeel is thick and viscous, palate coating, with a lingering, sticky finish.

Overall, this is really pretty amazing stuff. It’s an extreme beer to be sure, but it’s hard to imagine how this could be much better.

 

Prior to that: Chronologically from 81 on Raliegh, NC; Lawton, OK ( the stuff of nightmares ); Wichita, KS ( almost as bad ); Destin, FL; Birmingham, AL, Columbia, SC. Plus a couple of places in South Korea

 

Fonta Flora Darwin's Forehead Salted Porter, 6.5% ABV; 3.91 overall

Pours an effervescent cola color with a pinky of tan head. Near zero head retention & no lacing

S: Smokeyness, roasty, was hoping for nose

T: Follows the nose, pretty dang dry & iron up front. Dark chocolate & dryness, some smokeyness once this beer is warmed up, a touch of saltyness too. Finishes dry with, smokeyness, dark chocolate & a little salt & leafy hops

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation

Solid Porter the salt brings a different slant

 

Not sure if you got that one from me, but my opinion is the same as yours. I’d put that one behind the regular Head Hunter and Hop Juju, but still very good. Cheers.

 

Yes, I think this was from you, cheers!

 

You had me at Columbus and Cascade, sounds like a winner. So many breweries far from home I need to get to, now including this one.

 

Happy NBS!

Having a very juicy/tasty NEIPA from Russian River (CA), been a long time since I've had something new from RR.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/396142/?ba=Wasatch#lists

Cheers!

 

Greenhouse Aleworks/Celestial Beerworks Collab, PiLEA Triple Hopped IPA, 10% ABV. If you want to see the hops, go checkout my review, quite the list; 3.99 overall


Pours an effervescent & super-hazed gold with a thumb of ivory colored head. Very good head retention & better lacing

S: Citrus aplenty, melons, nose never picks up

T: Follows the nose, fairly dry, limes stand out, some grassyness up front. Cantaloupes, pomelo, dryness & green melon as this beer warms up, pink grapefruit as well. Finishes dry with pink grapefruit, green melon, guava, grassy notes, & papaya & a little pineapple

MF: Medium body, low key carbonation, good balance, wish it wasn't so dry

Good drinkability for the ABV, came on once warm

 

Happy NBS one and all!
I have had a busy and productive weekend, any day that features a chainsaw and felling trees is pretty good.
Tonight I have a doppelbock from Trails to Ales Brewery that was sent to me by @Ozzylizard
The style isn’t one I have had often, so it was really nice getting to try it.

The pour is deep amber with curiously no head for more than a minute. No lacing at all, a bit odd but the color is great.
The taste is some very dark fruit and chocolate, some toffee and a little bread flavor. A little sweet but essentially in the style lines.
The feel is more viscous than expected, but that might be a lack of experience on my part.
OA, a very easy drinking lager.
Thinking I might have another one a little later.
Cheers!

 

I actually got this beer just to make sure I'd have one thing to post this weekend...I have almost no beer in the fridge that isn't a sour my wife is interested in, and she decided to stop drinking for a month. So those will keep chilling, and I drank a bunch of languishing ciders.

Trailhead Imperial IPA

19.2oz can served in a curvy Monhegan pint glass. Can is dated 07/17/25. Bought it about half an hour ago at our local Safeway.

Pours clear light yellow, maybe a hint of brass. Moderate carbonation but little head. Smell is rather mild, in the simple pine direction, some lemon overtones, the number on the label is probably making me imagine the booziness.

Taste is very much on the bitter pine side, lemon rind is clearer, booze is noticeable but not dominant (though I think it would be if it was much warmer, which I'll probably find out in about 15 minutes). Bitter pininess builds up as you drink it, actually a rather pleasing characteristic since I was really hoping for an old fashioned kick-in-the-teeth west coast IPA.

Mouthfeel is light and dry. Overall, surprisingly happy with this. Fairly high on my list of what @BBThunderbolt calls "bum IPAs" I think

 

Excellent choice of song!

 

Interesting . . . I know of a shop that has a couple of these on the shelf, may have to go grab one.

 

I wandered up to Great Heights this afternoon. and they had a new lager on tap.

Let Them Run Wild, 5.1% ABV. I didn't know it when I ordered, but it is part of Pink Boots which brings together female brewers, managers, and owners. I'll always support them, at least at first...they might not like my review though

Anyway, they call this a West Coast Lager.



Pours a clear yellow color. A small white head tries to form, but recedes quickly to nothing. Very light lace left behind in its wake.
Aroma is Lemon rind, and that is about it. Very...one noted. Which isn't entirely a bad thing .
Taste wise, that lemon rind up front again. Though it becomes more nuanced. With a resin and pine like character, woody hops and a bitterness lingering.
A lighter than expected body. Moderate carbonation, that becomes sticky, resin like, and oily. Not particularly clean. Saying all that, its not hard to drink, if you think of it as an IPA.

Really, I'm getting tired of this. Just make this an IPA. Its not bad, but stuck between a good IPA, and wanting to be some kind of lager. Which the resin, sticky, woody character prevents. If you don't think about "style" all that much, it is fine, but then why make this instead of an actual IPA?

Overall score for me is 3.45, B territory. I can understand why some people really like this, but the blending of IPA and lagers has been going on for a LONG time now...and I have never been the biggest fan of that. I'm sure lots of people disagree with that, but thems my opinion And all that to say, this is a very easy to drink hoppy beer, I just have differences in what the style should be.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/50326/705267/?ba=champ103#lists

 

Yeah, me again. This is another one sent to me by @Ozzylizard in an amazing strike a couple weeks ago.
I have had a higher ABV lager but never (IIRC) a barrel aged one. Fortunately for me it’s a small (relatively speaking) can of 8.45 oz

The pour is dark amber and no head whatsoever. Which for a barrel aged doppelbock is almost expected.
The taste is full of bready malt, dark fruit, roasted toffee and zero hops. Very smooth.
The feel is lightly viscous, even a lager at 14.1% needs some body.
OA, not a daily drinker but a delight on occasion.
Thinking this will do it for me today.
For those of you on the west coast, there’s hours left on this NBS.
Cheers!

 

Fonta Flora Hop Beard Weast Coast Style IPA, 7.0% ABV; 4.01 overall

Dry-hopped with Amarillo, Citra, Mosaic & Citra

Pours an effervescent & bright gold with a thumb of ivory colored head. Unimpressive head retention & lacing

S: Bready, grassy, cakey notes once warm along with citrus

T: Follows the nose, dryness, tangerine & dryness & green melon up front. A touch of lime, cattyness as this beer warms through, white grapes, grapefruit & dryness as well. Finishes dry with lime, pomelo & bready notes

MF: Medium body, moderate carbonation, carbonation becomes crisper as this beer warms up

Great drinkability, straight-forward West Coast IPA, wish the nose was better. Drank so easy at the beach

 

Good Sunday evening. The great thing about this Sunday and the next - I'm still on vacation!

Starting the Barreled Souls tour with this one:



Speakeasy Mango Double Habanero Margarita. This is a gose with mango, lime, simple syrup and whatever they mean by a double shot of roasted habanero.

Pours a deep gold color, very turbid. Head consist of white soap bubbles that only lasts a few seconds before vanishing.

The smell is fresh mango, just a bare hint of lime, peppery fruitiness, and a touch of sweetness.

The taste follows with plenty of mango up front with a fair amount of sweetness, just a kiss of lime, and floral/fruity pepper. The heat comes in late - its a pretty good kick but not overwhelming. Tingles the tongue and catches the back of the throat. I like the fact that it keeps the fruity flavors of the peppers while delivering a decent bit of heat. For me I'd call it a medium heat. It lingers but doesn't really build. Doesn't get to the point of not wanting the next sip because it's stupid hot, plus the initial mango/sweet cools it back down for a moment.

Medium bodied with what I assume is mango pulp, but the heat from the peppers makes it bright.

Overall this is a very good Speakeasy beer. It's fun to drink. Sure - the base beer is pretty lost in this one. I know hot peppers in our brews is a polarizing subject - I like the heat and sweet balance going on here. If you don't like feeling the heat, there's a "regular" version where it's pretty dialed back featuring more fruitiness. If you don't think peppers belong in a beer, neither will be your cup o' tea. I think they dialed this one in pretty well for my liking. Thinking 3.8 or so but I have a hard time knocking it just on the liking factor.
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We drove by Barreled Souls I don't know how many times before stopping in a few years ago. So glad we did and happy to see the growth and evolution of the spot. The staff have always been great, knowledgeable and friendly no matter how busy they get. The food truck is very good. Outdoor seating - can't beat it in good weather. Hard to believe there's a busy highway 50 feet away. That Speakeasy vibe is still there - a tasting room under a law office. Barleywine Day is on our drive home...I think we'll be there!

 

I had a couple New Beers with Mrs. vurt last night, but it was Date Night, so I didn't approach the beers like I was going to review them.

After a long afternoon of errands, we had a couple beers on the patio, including this one:



Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest Festbier (collab with Störtebeker Brauspezialitäten)

The body is a brilliant deep maize yellow with honey gold highlights. The cream-colored head doesn't last long, and speckles the glass with sticky dots of foam. The nose is sweet, bready malt followed by spicy hops. The flavor is largely the same, and sweeter than I prefer. The malt depth is a bit thin, but offers tasty notes of toasted bread, Munich malt, a touch of caramel. There's a big spike of Perle hop flavor through the middle, along with another spicy hop flavor that presents as a mild radish character (odd, but not entirely unappetizing). The short finish boasts good hop spice and moderate bitterness along with toasty malt. Medium-bodied with a nice smooth texture, but feels undercarbonated. Overall, this year's version is not one of my favorites in the series. Ah well.

 

Those 375 mL Limited Release bottles are pricy, but if I see that one I will purchase it without hesitation.