Cigar City Bolita Brown Double Nut Brown Ale

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

Bottle thanks to Tarheels86. This beer looks great. I can’t see any reason to not give it a 5. Deep brown with a thick creamy beige that has great retention. Totally inviting. Strong aroma of sweet malts and toffee. Flavor instantly reminded me of one of my other favorite brown ales, Bells Best Brown, but about twice as strong in every area. Strong flavors of sweet malts, bitter chocolate, coffee, and everything roasted and toasted together. However, there is something that sort of turns me off, although just in the slightest. Similar to something I picked up on in the Big Sound also. Nothing really bad, but a little distracting. Still, all in all an excellent brown ale.

Bottle at Rattle N Hum. Dark brown pour. The nose is absolutely lovely. Intense chewy nose. Lots of sweet dark malts with a heavy cocoa character dominating. Chocolate and a touch of herbal tobacco character that really works well in here. Quite malty with a nice sweet toffeeish character in the middle. Intense but approachable with a bit of cedary woodiness as well. A little bit of grainy spice adds yet another layer of complexity. Really, lovely tasty stuff.

Thanks turdferguson for sharing. Pours a dark copper brown with a one finger light tan head. The nose has a nice nutty english character, some caramel, nice malt character, some earthy leafy hop character. Flavor is nutty, leafy hops, English feel, some hop grain astringency. Palate has a mild hop bite.

750 mL. Pours a clear, deep ruby with a two-finger creamy tan head that has excellent retention. Great aroma of coconut, caramel, big mocha character. Taste initially is off-putting: something strange like a big smack of fusel alcohol. Then quickly shifts to roasted nuts, black currant, dry cocoa. Nice resiny hops in the background offering good balance. Creamy on the palate. Big warming alcohol in the finish. I guess since this is the base for Coco Loco and other masterpieces, I’m a bit disappointed in the lack of complexity but this is a solid base for CCB to experiment freely. 3.7 Update 9/8/2009: From the Kickback’s CCB Dinner in Jax. Aroma is huge honey, tupelo honey and more scotch ale in the nose than I remember. Taste is also more scotch ale maltiness, toffee, and hints of soy. 3.5

Shared this bottle with Crown (nice to get him rating again!) Deep brown color and pours with a real nice frothy tan head. This is overall rather roasty, with nuts, chocolate, and caramel blending together quite nicely to give this a rich flavor while still being extremely easy drinking. I would have never thought this was 9% without knowing ahead of time. Any sort of note of alcohol shows in the finish with a little kick. A wonderful strong Brown Ale and I look forward to the treatments and blends of this beer Cigar City is distributing.

Bottle from Rattle’n’Hum; this one has been on my radar for a long time, I was quite psyched when I saw it was showing up in the city. Big, bitter, and chocolaty, with unfortunately a bit of fusel alcohol. Nutty, sweetish, and big, though not terribly complex. The flavor is sweetish, with molasses, peanut butter, and a fresh, green, bitter hop. Pumpernickel notes are present too, and the beer has a general mineraliness to it that works. A good effort.

Pours out dark brown with some head. Taste is sweet and roasty with some spice. Flavors of cocoa, sweet toffee, roasted nuts and some hops. Rich and smooth. Great nutty brown ale.

From bottle, RBSG08. Pours brown with a creamy off-white head. Dense malty and slight spiced aroma. Fruity and dense malty yet with a light yeasty touch in the flavour. Smooth yet also quite roasted and slight spiced.