Bos Grand Cru

Formerly brewed at Bos Brewery and Bistro
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Pontiac, Michigan USA

Tasted blind. 12oz unlabeled bottle (probably an 06 or 05 bottle). Surprising herbal nose. Smells like incense, sandalwood and wild wax. Indescribable. Impressive and complex. Light fruits. Pours a peachy blonde with a rim of white. Flavor is ridiculous. Tastes like Christmas. Full of orange and sage. Incense, perfume, Mexican candy, and waxy cactus flavor. Crazy pumpkin spice, Thanksgiving fruit. Apparently 14%, but tastes more like 4%. Complex savory character. Intensely flavored. Fuck, this is delicious. Amazing spice character, like I’ve never seen before. Fantastic spicing. Dry. Great amazing blend of spice and citrus on a mild malt character.Wow. This is amazing. Gingerbread and deliciousness. Complex, mature, well-aged. Thanks Sean!

Name: Grand Cru
Date: 04/27/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Brewpub
Vintage: 2001

clear golden, sweet aroma with wonderful spices and great honey, nice body, sweet honey flavor, nice spices, inspired by and surpasses Midas Touch

Aroma: 10/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 4.2/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Draught sample at MBG 2006 Summer Festival. Reddish-amber with a faint haze. Aroma is quite boozy, with lots of caramel malt and some dark fruit and wood - I didn’t care for it right away, with it grew on me as I finished the sample. Flavour is quite sweet and hot, with some caramel and bourbon notes. Pretty well balanced for 14%, but still a bit too hot.

Draught. At 2006 Michigan Brewers’ Guild Festival. Clear orange with a small white head. Slightly woody, nutty sweet caramel malt aroma, juicy and spicy, there’s oak and alcohol in there too. Tastes just like it smells, plenty of citrus, wood character, spicy yeast and very strong in alcohol, very ear-warming. Thick body, syrupy and boozy, there’s plenty going on here - more like a fruity-sweet barleywine, no harshness at all, I liked it a lot.

Michigan Brewers Festival 2006. Another purported alcohol monster from Bo’s, this one a bit less sleek than the stout. Copper amber body is essentially headless after it fades. Lightly herbal, sugar, boozey aroma with an ephemeral glimpse of something like candy cane. Flavour is pretty rough, sweet sugary caramel malt. Very nice at times but fairly discordant and abrasive as well. Medium palate (3+). 6-7/3/6-7/3+/13-14

2001 bottle shared by the brewmaster at the brewpub on 4/27/06: Still viscous golden bronze pour has a thin ring of bubble atop. Sweet candy floral honey, lightly spiced, complex, rich malty aroma. Starts with a sweet floral candy-like honey flavor with saffron spice and well-dissolved carbonation that gives more body. A very unique brew that’s like drinking molten honey complexity.

2001 Vintage: The brewer pulled this bottle out of his secret stash for us during our stop. Clear gold with nice legs. Very nice aroma. Sweet with candy, clove and other spices. Big honey nose as well. The flavor was sweet with honey and malt. The finish was spiced. After the malt stops the honey keeps going. It isn’t over powering though which to me makes it good since I am not a huge honey fan. Yet this was great. The mouthfeel was still lively with a medium to full body. Nicely warming with hints of alcohol pepper at the end. The brewer, Mr. Burns, said he uses honey, cardamom and saffron. Anyway I loved it. It aged great.

(2003 Vintage) Floral, honey and alcohol aromas meld well in the nose. Opaque tan body with low, cream coloured head that recedes to leave a thick ring around the sides of the glass. Floral, doughy honey flavour with a moderate bitterness that keeps it from becoming cloying. Mustiness lingers on the tongue. Alcohol is very apparent but not unpleasant. Very hot but it seems to work well. Medium-full body and creamy texture with low carbonation. Complex and interesting without being over the top. Sampled at the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival 2005.