Nebraska Brewing Company - Barrel Aged Reserve Series: M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Bettys)

M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Bettys) is brewed with twice as much grain as Black Betty and gets double mashed and dosed with a significant amount of Warrior hops, all before heading into potent bourbon barrels. M.O.A.B. maintains the smooth drinkability of the original, but with everything turned up a few notches: deeper specialty maltiness and roast, potent earthy hop character, and slightly amped-up barrel impact make this one an absolute treat to dig into. This bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout pours generally pitch-black with just a slight amount of cola-brown color around the edges. Lighter head formation than Black Betty, as this one’s capped by modest, medium-tan foam. This leaves a bit of lacing behind, with a nice viscosity to this beer overall. M.O.A.B. offers up somewhat more coffee, roast, and darker chocolate than Black Betty, which leads more with its mellow, milk-chocolate components; this one’s deeper and darker throughout. There’s a decadent, hugely nuanced imperial stout at the core here—lots of roast and licorice, plus that warming, layered bourbon presence throughout.

Full mouthfeel, with a moderate underpinning of CO2 and subtle impact of vinous warmth keeping things light on the palate. For how much layered chocolate and licorice and deep roast there is here, this is so nicely balanced and pleasant to dig into. M.O.A.B. accordingly amps up everything from Nebraska’s Black Betty—significantly more malts, greater hops impact from a potent Warrior addition (giving subtle earth and pine), and more pronounced barrel influence (featuring caramel and burnt sugar)—but these sweet and bitter elements are ramped up in tandem, with everything keeping its balance. The delicious core stout offers up a ton of dark chocolate and licorice and roasted malts, while the bourbon influence provides a welcome edge alongside this beer’s tucked-away alcohol. Exceptionally deep imperial stout, with lasting milk chocolate, caramel, and burnt sugars—still keeping its sweetness in check.

500-ml bottle

The potent ABV and dense construction suggest this should age gracefully for a number of years, though—like all four of the Nebraska Brewing beers in this special offer—this proves super smooth from the outset. M.O.A.B. will stand up to the heftiest of food pairings: steak, lamb kebabs, tri-tip, burnt ends… or works great for a side-by-side tasting with Black Betty.