Syko Mantiss
Blue Stallion Brewing Co.

Smooth, spicy, sweet, boozy and, of all things- quite drinkable. While their comfort zone is in classic Euro-styles, their identity is transforming them into something more complex, more challenging and sometimes quick sick!

Syko Mantiss pours a tawny mahogany with a short sprite froth. Its robust scent is highly toasted but not roasty. Sweet with caramel, maple, brown sugar and vanilla the taste is luscious and syrupy the tongue is awash with all-things-malt after the scent suggests a candied succulence just the same.

Little changes over the middle with the malt in firm control, the sweetness stretches across the middle palate and saturates it fully with mildly carbonated liqueur. Bourbon flavors of caramel, vanilla, charred oak and coconut shine while a peppery spice is suggestive of bitterness in a high brandy-like taste, and then a warm cherry and date stone fruit flavor offers more sweet and robust complexity. With the under-stated "non-imperialized" character of the beer is tame, the bourbon flavor is not!

Full yet restrained, the beer's sweetness and modest carbonation keeps the weight of the beer bearing down on the tongue and gives the session a heavy feel. But the dryness to close is facilitated by wood tannins, spicy booze and a deep resolve from sweetness. Nearly cloying, the beer trails into a strong bourbon taste and texture with that oaken booze resonating soundly.