Green Flash Grand Cru - Grand Mantis

Brewed by Green Flash Brewing Co.
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Vista, California USA

Bottle from Belmont Party. Poured clear brown color with medium frothy brown head that was mostly lasting with good lacing. Aroma was complex roasted sweet malty and citrus. Medium body with a smooth texture and soft carbonation. Medium bittersweet dark flavor with medium bittersweet finish of moderate duration. Good brew.

22. Jet black. Dense, creamy tan head. Chocolatey, mildly minty nose. Creamy medium body. Cola, dark malts, black bread on the mid-palate.

22oz bottle from justin..... pours a dark raisin brown with an admirable light brown head....aroma of dark fruit, yeast, and sweet sugary malt....flavors dark fruit, brown sugar, mild spices, and all-around sweet malt. medium carbonation and creamy mouthfeel. good but not too high on the complexity front.

bomber from the wooden keg. thunderous, wonderful cru. smell the delight of summer in the bottle.

Dark brown with a big creamy tan head. Aroma of yeast, spices, fruit and sweet malts. Flavor of yeast, spices, toffee and sweet malts.

Bottled- Dark brown with a small tan head. Aromas of banana and grape soda. Tastes of bananas, vanilla, cola, spice, hops and dark chocolate. Very sparkly on the tongue. Just a fantastically complex enjoyable beer.

Deep brown, off white head. Aroma is brown sugar, mollases, caramel, toffee, yeast. Taste is a light yeast, caramel, mollases, light brown sugar.

A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a three-finger thick, lightly browned, dark tan colored head. The beer is quite dark, with a deeply burnt amber color that is approaching black, when held up to the light the beer shows a brilliantly clear, bright cranberry hue. A rich fruity aroma is noticeable as I pour this brew and reminds me of raisin. A deeper inspection of the nose confirms this but also adds a malty, sweet-bread like note that makes me think of brown sugar glazed pastries that have been lightly browned. This finishes with a cracker like, dry grain note and a meaty malt note. As the beer warms the fruit notes moves towards a prune / concentrated plum type aromatic.

Sweet with an ample carbonation that causes this to foam a bit excessively as it hits my tongue. The beer finishes with a toasted malt astringency and a noticeable hop bitterness as well as a touch of alcoholic warming. Flavors of brown sugar and lightly burnt bread crust mix with fruit flavors of prunes and some fig flavors. This has a really astringent malt character to it for some reason, though this does seem to be accentuated by both the hop bitterness and alcohol. Some dusty malt character and perhaps a touch of cocoa become noticeable as the beer warms up a bit. This beer is not overly sweet, and in fact is really just rich on malt character.

This just isn’t my type of beer, it has too much astringency and dark malt character to it for my tastes (despite a Grand Cru being anything but a defined style). The beer is just a bit too un-integrated right now, but I could see this improving if laid down for a year or so.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ