Tröegs Independent Brewing The Mad Elf Grand Cru

The Mad Elf Grand Cru

 

Tröegs Independent Brewing in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States 🇺🇸

  Belgian Style - Quadrupel / Dark Strong Rotating
Score
7.30
ABV: 11.0% IBU: 15 Ticks: 26
If you know Tröegs, you know The Mad Elf, the mischievous belle of the holiday beer ball that helped put our little brewery on the map. In your hands is the Director’s Cut. Tart Balaton cherries – loads of them – make all the difference. Bottle-conditioned and flush with notes of cinnamon and clove, this beer begs to be shared. Take a bottle home, gather your friends, and cherish the cherries.
 

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7.9/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 7.5
Reviewed from notes.
Bottle to tulip.
Appearance: dark brown color with a thin cap of an eggshell white foamy head which dissipated inward and left some coating lace
Aroma: tart and sweet cherries, dark fruits, some brown sugar, slight Belgian yeasty tones, subtle cocoa powder then clove & cinnamon further in the back
Flavor: blends the prior noted aromas to a mild sweet to tart to spicy quality; finishes dark fruity and a touch of spice
Texture: medium bodied, good as a sipper; some smoothness and that "back-of-the-throat" Belgian grab that I was looking for
Overall: is this truly a Belgian Quad or a Belgian Dark Strong ale? That is the question as I may be left scratching my beard trying to figure that out a bit but another bottle might be nice to have this beauty again just to have for pleasure and ponder what this beer truly is.
Tried from Bottle on 20 Feb 2026 at 14:06

7/10
Big bottle. Pours maroon to mahogany not much head sourness, sweetness, dark sugary fruits abd malts
Tried from Bottle on 20 May 2025 at 01:55

7.5/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 8
Bottle thanks to Tom! Pours a clear deep red with a purple hue and a near white head that dissipates quickly to the edges. Aroma has a nice tart cherry with some sweet dark grains and a bit of date coming through. Flavor has tart cherry with growing date and a bit of sweet grains and caramel supporting.
Tried from Bottle on 18 Apr 2025 at 03:30

7.1/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 8.5
Bottle at home. Runny pour. Nose is cinnamon and cough syrup cherry. Tastes of cherry, herbal, cinnamon, licorice, brandy. Fine sipper.
Tried from Bottle on 04 Dec 2023 at 05:56

7.2/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7
Bottle. Pours opaque amber with a beige head. Belgian yeast, tart cherries, stone fruit, spice. Good.
Tried from Bottle on 27 Apr 2023 at 04:50

7.4/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 9 Flavor 6 Texture 8 Overall 6.5
It is always good to sample a new quadrupel from a US brewery, some of them are actually rather fine. But I will always appreciate the effort. I have a 37.5 cl bottle that I received from the earnest folks at Half Time. My first cork-and-cage in some time, reminds me of the old days. Inside of my Buffalo Bayou snifter I view a dark amber-black body with a practically not-there ring of silvery bubbles. The smell is gloriously full of ripe fruit along with a promise of spices. And the drink, well, somewhat different for a quad. Immediately I get sour cherries, then it settles into grain, hay, raisins, a touch of cinnamon, cough syrup and malt. Quadrupels are easily my preferred style, this one lies outside the boundary of what I would call accessible. An outlier, not bad, but not a beer I would purchase again.
Tried from Bottle on 21 Jan 2023 at 03:35

6/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 6 Flavor 6 Texture 6 Overall 6
750ml bottle pours a clear, dark amber, some off white head. Candy and cherry and robitusson.  It's ok.  6 3 6 3 12
Tried from Bottle on 28 Dec 2022 at 16:25

7.5/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 8 Overall 8
Large bottle. Poured a very deep, ruby red color, clear. Head was relatively small. Aroma was huge cherries. Less sweet than the regular version. Belgian yeast, some holiday spices - cinnamon, etc. Maybe a little bit of funk to it? Alcohol is really well masked.
Tried from Bottle on 23 Dec 2022 at 04:08

Haven’t had this in five years. What a mistake. Cherries, tart, boozy. Out of the top drawer.
Tried from Bottle on 17 Dec 2022 at 22:48

7.8/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8
375ml bottle at share. Dark pour, ruby tinges. Mildly sour aroma, Belgiany, with nootes of winter spice. Taste is pit fruit, raisins and plums, some Falnders red qualities. Pretty nice.
Tried from Bottle on 13 Dec 2022 at 02:58