Grand Cru
Southern Pines Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

Look: It pours deep copper with reddish hues. It has a tan head with moderate head retention.

Smell: The aromas are sweet with caramel, raisins and plums. It also has very low caramel notes.

Taste: It is sweet up front with raisins, plums, and cherries. There are some caramel notes with figs.

Feel: It has a medium full body with a sweet finish.

Overall, it's a tad sweeter that many in the same category with plenty of dark fruit flavors.

Drain-pour!

Garnet red to dark mahogany, this beer glows irridescently. A thin, quarter inch beige head of fine bubbles lingers a few minutes before leaving spotty lace on a tulip glass.

Sweet and fruity with plums and spice. Spices range from mincet o allspice, while fruits are more like cherries and currants. The aroma is very sweet.

Sweetness is pervasive throughout, generally following the nose. Maraschino cherries are punctuated by mince with secondary notes including plums. The finish is modest with a medium length of fruity malts, possibly including apple juice.

The beer is full bodied with soft, fine carbonation and a fine silk texture. Alcohol is well controlled, allowing creaminess to linger.

This is definitely a holiday beer, well suited for sipping during conversations with friends and family. It was a welcome surprise when first sampled and held up well ten months later.

A: Pours a clear almost opaque deep dark mahogany in color with light to moderate amounts of fine active visible carbonation rising along the edges of the glass and moderate garnet red colored highlights. The beer has a finger tall foamy tan head that slowly reduces to a medium sized patch of very thin film towards the center of the glass and a very thin ring at the edges of the glass. Light amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate aromas of dark fruits (cherry + raisin + plum), dark malts, and candi sugar sweetness with a hint of spicy hops.

T: Upfront there are moderate flavors of dark malts with a moderate amount of candi sugar sweetness. That is followed by slightly stronger than moderate flavors of dark fruits (cherry + raisin + plum) and a moderate amount of spicy/peppery yeast with a light to moderate amount of spicy + grassy hops in the finish. Light amounts of bitterness and a light to moderate amount of spicy notes linger through the finish.

M: Medium to full bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Slightly chewy with a light to moderate amount of gentle alcohol warming towards the finish.

O: Easy to drink with decently hidden alcohol considering the strength of the beer and style (BSDA). Nice complexity to the flavor, more so than the aroma but both are true to the style. Enjoyable.

Came in a goblet a deep dark mahogany with some amber hue,a thinner lighter beige head atop.Deeply fruity in the nose with some candied sugar underneath.Sweet with a tinge of apple cider on the palate wich got bigger as I drank more,a cakey element in the finish.Very chewy in the mouth,almost dessert in a glass.Very nicely done,big but not to big to drink,and not too sweet.