Cigar City Big Sound Scotch Ale

Brewed by Cigar City Brewing
Style: Scotch Ale
Tampa, Florida USA

750mL bottle. Poured cola brown with a short, swirly cap of beige head. The aroma picked up an above average dose of tart darker fruit skins (must’ve had something to do with the cherry in the description), with aged caramel, toffee, and nutty maltage providing additional sweetness.. biscuity notes and more fruit with warmth.. I didn’t like it initially, but it grew on me. The flavor found a bed of caramel laced with sweeter chocolates, toffee, and brown sugar at the core.. tart darker fruits played a lesser role than on the nose, dancing delicately around the edges.. more sweetness plus banana-influenced yeast on the edges.. caramel, brown sugar, and toffee sweetness on the long, somewhat warming finish. Medium-bodied with a fuller feel on the palate (not sure if it was carbonation-related or just a lot of sugars).. the tartness worked well in here, which I didn’t expect. Nice one!

Bottle courtesy of dkachur on 09/12/2009. Slightly cloudy dark brown body with a small off-white head. Sweet roasty and slight smoky aroma. Sweet chocolate, roasty, slight smoky flavor. Medium full body with moderately low carbonation.

Aroma is loaded with caramelly malts, some ligher peat coming through as well. Looks like liquid toffee, and quite frankly, tastes like it too! Very sweet with a nice toasty quality to it. Overall quite taste, great treat on Christmas night! Thanks to secret santa 09 for this gem.

bottle shared with kegbear. Oh man this one smells like caramel and some toffee. It tastes the same with an awesome bit of chocolate cocoa as it warms it slightly mellows and the cocoa becomes a bit more pronounced. This beer is awesome!

750ml, pours hazed ruby with tan head. Nose of of dark fruit, toffee, and cocoa powder. Flavors have bakers chocolate, dates, and toffee. Malty brew, med body. Tasty beer.

750ml bottle courtesy of HOPSHUNTER – thanks Jason! Pours a hazy dark reddish brown with a one finger tan head that leaves nice lacing. The nose is slightly sour upfront with peat, light chocolate, roasted nuts and toasted caramel malt. The taste is burnt malt, ashy cocoa, caramel and faint coffee with some smoky peat in the finish. Medium creamy mouthfeel. Really good, probably the best of the style that I’ve had to-date. Thanks again for sending this my way Jason!

Bottle from Kingdom Liquor. Poured a clear dark brown color with an average frothy off-white head that mostly lasted with excellent lacing. Moderate to heavy toasted sweet malt and earthy aroma. Medium to full body with a smooth texture and flat carbonation. Medium to heavy toffee flavor with a medium to heavy sweet finish of moderate to long duration. This is a very good brew.

again, thanks to rusty for breaking this out 9/27/2009. pours dark, dark, dark.... an orange-reddish shade of brown with a big dense beige head. it smells like nutty fig cake... a touch sour, molasses, brown sugar, a little alcohol sting, figs, cake flour, sweet grain and earthy spice. the taste makes me think of earthy toasted pecans covered in butter and brown sugar... then a dry finish followed with a nutty coffee-like aftertaste. the body is medium, dry yet coating and terribly easy to put away. remanes...ha!8/5/8/4/15/4.0