mrbunn (3068) reviewed Jai Alai from Cigar City Brewing 17 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Growler pour with much thanks to tpd975. Body is a reddish amber with a massive and frothy tan head. Aromas are a lovely blend of citrus, soap, and a bit of pine. Flavor is about the same, but with a bigger pine presence than the nose led me to believe. The soapy presence comes through a bit too much in the flavor, but man... I’d take more of this any day. Any complaints are just a bit of nitpicking.
BMan1113VR (8090) reviewed Maduro from Cigar City Brewing 17 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Growler thanks to ericandersnavy. Pours with a small, off-white head and a brown body. Aroma of chocolate, nuts, grain and oats. Taste is nutty with coffee and chocolate. Very malty. Light carbonation. Good for a brown ale, but I do not find the style very exciting.
BMan1113VR (8090) reviewed Jai Alai from Cigar City Brewing 17 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Growler thanks to ericandersnavy. Pours with a small white head and a hazed brown body. Aroma is piny hops (simcoe like), and caramel. Taste has a nice sweetness up front followed by pine and citrus hops rounding out the flavor with some bitterness. Creamy mouthfeel with light carbonation. This stuff is pretty solid...maybe Cigar City isn’t all hype.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Darkish chestnut colour. Thin head. Rich, nutty aroma. Toasty with a full malty body. Very full body. Very thick take on a brown. Toasty character.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
On tap at the OTH launch party pouring deep copper with rusty edges and tan head. If I think about it the aroma is split between the syrup sticky sweetness and thick application of pine and grassy hops from the barleywine and the fresh hop crispness of the IPA to go along with a faint fruity berryness in the background. The taste is similar with thick sweet malts that have caged up copious amounts of late addition pine and grassy hops from the barleywine to start to go along with a cedar twang. By midway it lightens up with a cornucopia of hop additions, with tangelo, pine and a bit of resin notes just leading the way and smooth modestly sweet malts from the IPA in tow. As the finish approaches the infusion from the berries begins to be noticed with a mild berry sensation, earthiness and a sense of tobacco mixing with lingering caramel, molasses and pine hops. Interesting stuff. It may benefit with a little more age that may allow it to blend a bit more. Maybe a couple of months. I like it now though.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
On tap at the OTH launch party pouring dirty brown with gold – copper like edges and micro thin white head. The aroma initially reminds me of bubbling caramel malty wort. I get lots of caramel and roasty malts and then moving into fruity notes like dark grape juice mixing with mild citrus sweet tangelo and molasses. The taste initially seems like cold wort as well with sweet malts, roasted malts, molasses and caramel. To midway the flavor slowly moves into mild dry roasty malt astringency mixing with a light amount of pine, grassy hops, a hint of sweet grape juice and then a touch of grainy malts and molasses. The caramel runs from the front to the back of the flavor. I got very little, if any, cedar notes.
Oakes (33770) reviewed Jai Alai from Cigar City Brewing 17 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Golden-amber. Not much head. There’s a little woody, almost anglo-hop to it with light citrus notes (grapefruit) as well. Has that chewy, earthy richness and moderate bitterness. Fairly smooth presentation. Well-made but does not conform to my Seattle-centric IPA bias.
Oakes (33770) reviewed Maduro from Cigar City Brewing 17 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Golden-red colour. Thin head. Fairly rich nutty nose - wood, leaf, tobacco and light nuttiness. Toasty character. Quite dry. Mainly nutty with a dried leaf character. Fairly full body for the style.
Oakes (33770) reviewed Sugar Plum Brown Ale from Cigar City Brewing 17 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Dark brown. Thick head. Light muddiness. Huge aroma - plums, sugar, muscovado and deep fruitiness. Smooth dark chewy malts, brown sugar, big plum character and light smoke. Excellent.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Orangey-amber with a creamy head. Big spice and lots of sugars plus cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and pumpkin. Big brown sugar with more of the same spices. Very rich. Creamy and delicious, this is as big a pumpkin ale as I’ve had and as good.