Name: Smeerolie Coconut Milkshake
Brewers: Moersleutel Craft Brewery/ De Moersleutel Beer Engineers (Netherlands)
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (Base Style: Imperial Stout)
ABV: 10.0%
Review Year: 2019
De Moersleutel Beer Engineers or Brouwerij De Moersleutel, is a brewery run by four Dutch siblings. These “beer engineers” claim to only brew for people who love pronounced and complex flavors. True enough, browsing through De Moersleutel’s beer catalog was a mouthwatering experience especially for drinkers like us that enjoy hugely-flavorful beers.
Most of the brewery’s current releases are dark beers, specifically stouts ranging from eight to 12 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). One of these highly-potent beers is the Smeerolie Coconut Milkshake an Imperial Stout brewed with lactose, coconut, vanilla, and cacao nibs.
STYLE GUIDELINES
This beer is being evaluated as a Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (30A) with the Imperial Stout (20C) as the base style in the context of the 2015 Beer Style Guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The most current version of the guidelines can be found on the BJCP website.
TASTING NOTES
This stout is black in color, topped with a creamy brown head. The aroma akin to coconuts glazed with vanilla syrup was an absolute treat to the senses. We’ll be honest here: this is probably one of the most aromatic stouts we have ever encountered.
The initial sip of Smeerolie Coconut Milkshake took us back to our childhood days eating Meiji chocolates from those cute little rectangular boxes. In addition, an interplay of flavors resembling coconuts, almonds, pandan leaves, and some black peppers came to the fore. The kaleidoscope of flavors was then followed by coconut sugar sweetness and roasted cacao maltiness.
The complexity in flavors became palatable unexpectedly in the form of a light-bodied stout. After a sip, Smeerolie Coconut Milkshake lingers for a while, retaining notes of Meiji chocolates, cacao nibs, and lactose sweetness.
THE VERDICT
In summary, De Moersleutel Beer Engineers produced a super tasty lactose stout with their Smeerolie Coconut Milkshake. We love it and we now look forward to more of their beers!
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