Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout

Brewed by Cigar City Brewing
Style: Imperial Stout
Tampa, Florida USA

Handbottled.
Clear dark black color with a large, creamy to frothy, good , fully lasting, copper to light brown head. Aroma is ligt heavy malty, roasted, caramel, soap, sweet vanilla, sweet cinnamon, vegetable. Flavor is heavy sweet and bitter with a long long duration, chilli - peppery - cinnamon spice burn finish. Body is medium to full, texture is creamy, carbonation is soft to flat. [20091114]

Hand bottle via trade, big thanks to Gillard for this rarity. Shared it at a tasting. Pours pitch black and pretty viscous with a creamy tan head that has some large bubbles. Amazing aroma - chocolate, spices, roast, smoke, and mild chili peppers. Flavor is incredible and moves through several phases. Starts with semi-sweet chocolate then roast and coffee, followed by some smoke, vanilla, then chili peppers, cinnamon, wood and bitter cocoa and hops on the finish. The complexity is pretty crazy. Medium full on the palate with a bitter cocoa chalkiness. Bitterness really sticks with you, and I feel like it’s more from the cocoa than the hops. Drinkability is not great, but I think this works very well as a sipper. This is pretty much the best cigar beer ever.

Bottled. Beautiful pour. As this warms and breathes the aroma really opens up, with nice, smooth spicy complexity but not much in the way of the actual beer. A lot of cinnamon all around, some definite spice from the chili peppers but in a very balanced way. Pretty much all the roast is covered by vanilla and cocoa. Full bodied with minor pepper throughout, more cinnamon and cocoa, perhaps some tomatillo. A delicious beer, but sadly one that is completely defined by its spice treatment and little else. Fails to wow.

My 14,900th rating. A pitch black beer with a brown head. The aroma has notes of roasted malt, chili, and soy sauce. The flavor is sweet with notes of roasted malt, soy sauce, alcohol, chocolate, and chili, leading to a dry roasted finish. The alcohol leaves a burn in the mouth.

Balck with a medium dark beige/deep espresso head. Spicy aroma with burned malt, chilis, coffee and dark chocolate. Flavour had a nice chili touch, burned malt, dark bitter chocolate and coffe. Finished dry and somewhat spicy.

Hand bottle 33 cl. Courtesy of madmitch76. Pours pitch black with a deep almost reddish brown head - I’ve never quite seen anything like it. The aroma is equally unique, a really enticing mixture of vanlla, hard roasted malts, and a whiff of chili - everything perfectly balanced. The body is solid, lots of hard roasted malts, some sweet cocoa comes out and the chili leaves a little bite on my lips. The finish is dark chocolate, the hard roasted malts leaving a little bitterness. Finally a truly unique Imperial Stout with the spicing being perfectly subtle and balanced. I really dig this. 141109

Handbottled. Sweet vanilla aroma. Black colour. Small dark brown head, reddish almost like copper. The flavour has some cinnamon, sweetness. Subtle warming feel, at first it seems like alcohol, but it is probably the peppers. The flavour is very sweet with a distinct roast barley note, but it is balanced OK by the alcohol and chilli. Perhaps a bit too many flavours added, but at least they are quite subtle. Very late coffee aftertaste.

33 cL handbottled, courtesy of Papsoe. Pours dark browh to black with a chocolate brown head. Aroma is smooth fruity and hardroasted malty. Dark chocolate and slight peppery spice note to this. Herbal and peppery flavoured, coffee and chocolate herbal note to a hardroasted malt base. Bitter, spiced and acidic roasted malt base. Sticky chocolate flavoured with a distinct acidic roasted note. Peppery bite in the finish. Lingering sweet dark roasted malt flavoured into the far finish.