Cedar Aged Jai Alai

Cedar Aged Jai Alai by Cigar City Brewing
Style / abv: American IPA / 7.5%
Source / Temp: Bottle / 50 deg
Glass: Small Snifter

Appearance: Medium golden peach brew with a fizzy white head.

Aroma: From the instant that I brought the glass to my nose, it was apparent that this would be another interesting brew by Cigar City. This beer has a big cedar aroma with marmalade, grapefruit, and a touch of spiciness.

Taste: Wow, what an interesting beer! The sweet citrusy front is followed by a slight marmalade middle and then a fairly strong dry cedar finish that bites the tongue.

Drinkability: This beer is quite drinkable in part because of the watery, medium carbonated body and in part because of the enticing flavor.

Notes:
I was skeptical that cedar could offer anything to Jai Alai. To be completely honest, I was skeptical that cedar could improve any beer. I was wrong. This is one of the most interesting beers that I've ever had and one that I greatly look forward to having again. As with Hunahpuh's and Marshal Zhukov's, I find that between the amazing aroma and delicious taste, I can hardly set my glass down. A buddy of mine once said that everything Cigar City brews is awesome. I'm only five brews in, but so far I am very impressed.

Thanks to Charles for sending me this for my birthday!

I give Cedar Aged Jai Alai 9 out of 10.

Eis Igian,
Randall

Waffles At Noon

Check out Mike's interview by the folks at Waffles At Noon about his thoughts on the Craft Beer Phenomenon.

Dark Lord Day 2012

Just one week ago, I wrote a short post about all of the great beer that we got to try at Dark Lord Day 2011. Today Three Floyds posted the first little bit of news about Dark Lord Day 2012. Their post doesn't say much more than that there will be information coming later, but it is exciting to see Three Floyds is starting to gear up for this excellent festival!

Eis Igian,
Randall

Cigar City

Just visited the lovely Cigar City brewery in Tampa, FL. I will post a review of what they had on tap soon. I'll just briefly state that their offerings to us crazy micro beer fiends was quite the beertopia. Looking forward to doing a video blog of their infamous Hunahpu's day this March.

-Charles

Dark Lord Day 2011

I was doing some cleaning and found a list of the various brews that we got to try at Dark Lord 2011:

Bell's : Special Double Cream Stout
BrewDog : Tactical Nuclear Penguin
Bruery : Saison De Lent (tap)
Deschutes : The Abyss
Firestone Walker : Double Jack
Founders : Breakfast Stout (tap)
Founders : Devil Dancer (tap)
Founders : KBS
Goose Island : Night Stalker
Half Acre : Daisy Cutter
Live Oak : Hefeweizen
Live Oak : IPA
Lunar : Kosmonaut (tap)
Port Brewing : Swamis IPA
Russian River : Pliny the Elder
Schlafly : IPA (tap)
Stone : Smoked Vanilla Porter (tap)
Surly : Darkness
Three Floyds : Dark Lord De Muerte
Three Floyds : Evil Power (tap)
Three Floyds : Vanilla Bean aged Dark Lord (tap)
Three Floyds : Zombie (tap)

While some of these beers were available on tap at the festival, some were brews that we brought, and many were brews shared by the many generous patrons of the festival. I think that the sharing at Dark Lord Day is what really makes it a special event.

Finding this list has me really looking forward to Dark Lord Day 2012! I think I'll have to pop a bottle of 2011 Dark Lord soon...

Eis Igian!
Randall