Belt’s Beer Garden: Join the Club

False Idol can trace their roots back to 2016, over a sales competition for naming a beer, but they didn’t become a reality for a few more years. Their first brews were released in 2019 with their doors finally opening in North Richland Hills, Texas back in June of 2020.

The brewery, which sits in a suburb of Fort Worth/Dallas, strives to have unique and exciting branding in order to set themselves apart. And boy did they hit the mark with this series. Last year they released a Stranger Things series of beers and, this year it’s back!

For this year’s releases, they offered up a pair of new brews - Vecna and Hellfire Club.

I was able to snag a can of each of those brews. And today is a special day…for today I join the Hellfire Club!

Hellfire Club is a double dry hopped IPA made with Citra, Galaxy, and Strata hops. It was packaged on June 27th and released on July 8th. Hellfire Club has a very solid 8% ABV but it was a tad bit more expensive, costing $8 per pint. Totally worth it to be in the Club and save Hawkins, Indiana (and the world) though.

The beer poured a bright straw color with about a finger of pure white head building up. The foam quickly vanished (possibly to the Upside Down?), leaving a thin ring around the edge of the glass.

On the nose, it was packed with dank and resinous hoppy notes. There were some tropical and citrus fruits - like lemon, grapefruit rind, and pineapple. But there was also a big pine and earthy characteristic. It was quite the blend of hop aromas.

My first sip initially began with a super soft and creamy mouthfeel but that, somewhat surprisingly, turned more watery and lighter after just the first few seconds.

A low hum of hops buzzed underneath the beer as the flavors began to creep forward. As with the smell, it was a blend of different hop profiles that blended into one nice, balanced brew.

Earthy and pine notes were first to be detected, with some light bitterness hitting the back of my tongue. However, the flavors soon shifted into something much more pleasant and soft…a lot like Eddie Munson.

Around the midway point there was a big burst of juicy citrus, with orange, pineapple, and lemon flavors taking over the back half of the sip. Those fruit notes began to quell the initial bitter twinge and softened the beer out tremendously over the last few moments.

It finished mostly clean, with a few things sticking around longer than the rest. There was a slight earthy, almost nutty, aftertaste and a resinous grapefruit rind quality that lingered but, for the most part, it was quite a nice finish.

Overall, it was a solid DDH IPA. There was a nice blend of hoppy flavors while still remaining light and drinkable. I would have liked it to be a bit more juicy throughout but, regardless, I was still quite happy with this brew.

As a side note, I can’t wait to also try their Vecna - an Imperial Stout made with peanuts and cacao that’s supposed to give off serious peanut butter cup flavors!