Big Sound
Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, Florida, United States 🇺🇸
Scotch Ale / Wee Heavy Regular|
Score
7.45
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Big Sound Scotch Ale is dedicated to our good buddy Gino, the most punk rock bagpiper you’ll ever meet, and the rest of the men and women of Tampa Bay Pipes and Drums. Brown in color, Big Sound has huge notes of dark sweet toffee with underlying mild notes of coffee in the aroma. The flavor starts with a slight note of cherry and then opens into a Goliath of a malt character with notes of dark sweet toffee, slight hints of coffee and mild notes of toasted bread in the finish. Big Sound Scotch Ale pairs well with Haggis, Highland Games, Huge Heads and Enormous Pillows and of course Bagpipe music.
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8.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 9
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
750 ml bottle into snifter, bottled on 8/20/2012. Pours moderately cloudy very dark reddish brown color with a 1 finger dense cream colored head with good retention, that reduces to a thin lace cap that lingers. Light soapy lacing clings on the glass. Aromas of big caramel, molasses, raisin, cherry, apple, toast, pear, toffee, clove, light roast, peat smoke, dark bread, and toasted earthiness. Fantastic aromas with great balance and big complexity of dark/toasted malt notes with fruitiness and moderate peat. Taste of big caramel, molasses, raisin, cherry, apple, toast, toffee, pear, clove, light roast, dark bread, light peat, and toasted earthiness. Lingering notes of caramel, molasses, light and dark fruit, toast, toffee, clove, dark bread, light roast, light peat, and earthiness on the finish for a while. Damn nice balance with big complexity of malt and fruity flavors; with zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Medium carbonation and very full bodied; with a slick, creamy, and lightly syrupy mouthfeel that is great. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is a highly excellent scotch ale! Very nice balance and big complexity of malt/fruity flavors; and very smooth to sip on. A highly enjoyable offering.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 May 2013
at 20:23
7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
750ml bottle @ CBC 2013
Pours dark brown with a smooth head. Aroma of grainy malts, sweet syrup and wood. Taste is sweet, grainy and malty with some sticky notes. Finish is malty and grainy with some woody notes. Okay, quite malty ale.
Pours dark brown with a smooth head. Aroma of grainy malts, sweet syrup and wood. Taste is sweet, grainy and malty with some sticky notes. Finish is malty and grainy with some woody notes. Okay, quite malty ale.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 May 2013
at 08:03
6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 4
Texture 8
Overall 7
Bottle. Pours dark brown with small foamy tan head, bread aroma, sweet fruity taste with a hint of caramel, low carbonation, long finish. A bit too sweet for my taste.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Feb 2013
at 19:08
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
From a 75 cl bottle shared at Canaan Valley. Pours black with a tan head. Aroma of coffee and roasted nuts. Dark sour cherries, raisins, and toffee with a warm, soothing finish. Very nice.
Tried
from Bottle
on 28 Dec 2012
at 13:25
7.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 8
75cl Bottle at UDRBM. Dark brown colour, short-lived off-white head. Aroma is spicy and sweet, between the Huhnapus-spices and a bock, liquorice, alcohol. Flavour is sweet, malty, liqourice, laurel, dark fruits, alcohol and light coffee finish. Nice sipper. Medium-bodied, soft carbonation.
Tried
from Bottle
on 02 Dec 2012
at 06:10
6.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
750 mL bottle. Dark brown, bubbly, and a large, tan head. The aroma is big peat notes, burnt oak, toffee, and salt. The flavor is sweet and malty, with a long, sticky and mildly bitter aftertaste. Fairly heavy body, malted and sticky. Overall, this is a good scotch ale, with massive malts and syrupy-sticky mouthfeel.
Tried
from Bottle
on 17 Nov 2012
at 21:15
7.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
750 ml bottle. This label reads 9% ABV. Pours dark dark brown with a collapsing beige head. Aroma is caramelly and I’m not getting much of anything else. Taste is malty sweet and tastes more like a brown ale than the peaty, smoky Scotch ale I was looking forward to (I know there are those who would argue that the peatiness in "Scotch" ales is a total American invention, but I really don’t give a fuck! That’s what I like.) Not that this is bad, but it’s not what I was expecting. Has a licorice-tinged finish and a velvety mouthfeel. Not too different than the Bolita I rated before this, actually, but it seems less impressive...probably the lack of peat that I was expecting.
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 Nov 2012
at 22:53
6.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Imported from my RateBeer account as Cigar City Big Sound Scotch Ale (by Cigar City Brewing (CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective)):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 12/20, MyTotalScore: 3.1/5
17/IX/2012 12Fl. Oz. bottle @ home - BB: XI/7/14 (2012-1054) Thanks to Kristof and Filip for sharing the bottle!
Clear dark brown beer, small irregular off-white to beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: dried fruits, overripe fruits, brown sugar, chocolate malts. MF: soft to almost no carbon, medium to full body. Taste: very sweet, sugary, raisins, banana, dried fruits, some milk chocolate. Aftertaste: sugary, sweet, syrupy, dried fruits, cloying sweetness, little bitter hoppy touch, some liquorish.
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 12/20, MyTotalScore: 3.1/5
17/IX/2012 12Fl. Oz. bottle @ home - BB: XI/7/14 (2012-1054) Thanks to Kristof and Filip for sharing the bottle!
Clear dark brown beer, small irregular off-white to beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: dried fruits, overripe fruits, brown sugar, chocolate malts. MF: soft to almost no carbon, medium to full body. Taste: very sweet, sugary, raisins, banana, dried fruits, some milk chocolate. Aftertaste: sugary, sweet, syrupy, dried fruits, cloying sweetness, little bitter hoppy touch, some liquorish.
Tried
from Can
on 17 Sep 2012
at 10:06
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
Doft av mogen och omogen banan. Smak banan, sirap, karamell, bränt socker, riktigt sötsliskig men väldigt god.
Tried
on 02 Jul 2012
at 12:24
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
0.75l bottle from beermerchants.com This one pours a deep deep dark brown body and it has a small but intense bubbly and sidesticking dark woody-brown head. It smells really intense and somewhat dark-caramel sweet with lots of woody and chocolate tones, some clear red dried fruity tones as well and perhaps also a tone of cold coffee. Flavors are quite out there on the sweet side, perhaps a bit to far out if you ask me, but it still manages to feel somewhat balanced. A soft to average carbonation level and the texture feels sticky and thick in the mouth. Toffee caramel with berries and red-alcohol is clearly dominating, but there are also tones of cold coffee, chocolate, wood and candy. Yeah, I liked it, but perhaps just a tad to sweet for my tongue? Anyhow a great sipper (it took a while to sip a 0.75l bottle) 06.05.2012
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 May 2012
at 02:22