Grande Cuvée Réserve De Noël - Les Trois Mousquetaires

Phyl21ca

Quebec (Canada)

3.99/5  rDev +1%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Bottle: Poured a deep brown color ale with a large foamy head with good retention and some light lacing. Aroma of cinnamon and light cloves with some candi sugar notes and some fruity ester is quite sublime. Taste is a easily drinkable mix of light cinnamon and cloves notes with some fruity ester and residual sugar with a solid malt backbone. Body is quite full with good carbonation with light warming alcohol that can be detected. I really enjoyed this one with some complex mix of spices while retaining a good drinkability level.

Serving type: bottle

04-29-2013 01:33:26 | More by Phyl21ca

4ster

Quebec (Canada)

4.08/5  rDev +3.3%
look: 3.75 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Christmas lager brewed once a year. Style is more like a Winter warmer, as I've never seen a red lager clock in at over 11%, but style on bottle is labeled as a spiced red lager, not an ale, so will go with that for now. Date on bottle, 11/12.
Poured into a Pokal/Footed Pilsner glass. Drank both out of the fridge and let warm up to recommended temp of 10+ C.

A: Cloudy, unfiltered, medium/dark reddish orange. Aggressive pour gives a decent off-white head, but quickly dies off with minimal, faint lacing...

S: Lots of spice on the nose, especially cloves, a bit of cinnamon... lots of syrupy sweet aromas as well, brown sugar, dark malts.... I get a bit of orange in there as well

T: First off I get candied ginger, lots of sweet spicy malts in this as this warms up, very complex malt profil, roasty, vanilla under tones....finishes with a slightly alcoholic spice aftertaste again with the cloves and some other winter mulling spices. The 11% definitely leaves a lasting feeling as it goes down, almost burning the spice into you....very low bitterness/hop profile.

M: very light carbonation, almost non existent. Very syrupy mouthfeel, sticks to your tongue like honey.

O: As we sit here in the midst of a very cold January winter streak, this beer hits the spot. Red lager, or winter warmer, call it what you will, it certainly is doing its job. The alcohol is certainly present in this one which is ok, as right now I've feeling quite warm and happy, nearly enough to go for a run in the snow outside! This is certainly a sipper, but for that the brewer has made a interesting, tasty beer that certainly does the job if you just want to have the night melt away in your large arm chair with your best companion tucked up next to you... if you're in Quebec over Christmas I'd recommend you pick one of these up, even if they run for around 12$, it's pretty close replacement for that after dinner port so in that regards, not a bad deal.... And like a port, careful, as it warms this one does get quite sweet, but what do you expect from all that malt....

Serving type: bottle

01-26-2013 02:56:45 | More by 4ster