Cigar City Chaveta India Dark Mild

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

Thanks to Kan for inviting me over for this beer. Half growler bottle that looks like an old medicine bottle. India dark mild, that’s quite the hybrid with a funny sounding name. Pours dark brown with a tan head that laces down the cigar city snifter. Nice coffee, chocolate, and wood aromas, strong and interesting. The wood reminds me of old harsh cheap wood, not smoother oak, though maybe that’s a result of the other ingredients. Chocolate and pale malts that are sweet with tons of wood. So incredibly dry that the splinters are still embedded in my tongue. All around interesting and enjoyable, I’d love to try more of their brews.

Courtesy of northernbrews

Growler: The aroma consists of chocolate, roasted malt, coffee, and piney hops. It pours a dark brown with a moderate tan head that leaves behind some nice sheets of lacing. The flavor starts with a quick dose of chocolate but is quickly dominated by lots of roastiness, piney hops, coffee. Overall the flavor tastes like a really hopped up porter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

32 oz mini-growler. Dark brown with a tan haze. Nose is salty molasses, dark chocolate and grass. Medium light with foamy carb. Taste is watery Ovaltine, lemon peel and tobacco with a nice bitter quinine bite. Lots of bold flavors packed into this Mild; Stout Lite?

not sure which rating to put this one under but damn. for a 3.5% beer this packs quite a punch.....pours a dark espresso brownwith a moderate to heavy thin light tan head... aroma of green pungent hops with an extreme roastiness.... flavors of piney hops, loads of roast, and a green bitter long lasting finish. somewhat beguiling in terms of how much flavor is packed into this. lively mouthfeel. hard to believe that this is so light in abv cuz the flavor demands so much more. bitterness somewhat gets in the way with the finish.

32 oz growler freshly arrived courtesy of Beerlando. Bryan, you are the man. Pours a near black pour, near opaque, reddish around the edges. Big brown cakey head, these CO2 locked growlers really are great! Good lacing. Aromas are lightly chocolatey, dry and roasty, pretty good ash, sweetness, coffee. Pretty nice for a Mild. Light hoppy florals behind everything. Nice. Initial is light bodied, packing on coffee, roast, dryness, floral hops and bitterness go well. Some bitter chocolate. This beer leaves a nice dry roast, hoppy bitterness of pine, and underlying sweetness comes in fuller later on: vanilla, chocolate, coffee lightness under it all, reminiscent of Tiramisu or some other creamy dessert. Very nice beer, great flavor and palate, but not a Mild with its fairly prominent hops. Still, the flavor on this thing even at 3.5% is frankly, amazing. I’m very happy with my CCB experience thus far! Keep them coming, Bryan!

Growler. Incidentally, this is my first "mild ale", though I can honestly say there’s not much that’s mild about it. The pour yields a dark and cloudy mahogany colored body. A dense, lasting head of creamy, light brown foam crowns the surface, leaving thick, splotchy sheets of lacing all the way down the glass. The nose is really beautiful, big on chocolate milk malts and vanilla creme, initially resembling the aroma of a freshly iced cake. From there’ things turn a bit more aggressive, as staunch, piny hops, roasty espresso, and anise impart a sharp, biting contrast to the underlying lactic sweetness. The flavor shows all of the roast of a nice coffee stout, big burnt cocoa notes and dark, scorched caramel offering bittersweet maltiness, while bold, resinous pine and dry, grassy hops counter with striking bitterness. A good amount of the spicy cedar comes on late. With taste abounds, the finish is a little overly aggressive, lingering for ages after the medium bodied, slightly prickly, peppery finish. In short, this is about as over-the-top as I can possibly imagine a mild ale being. While its incredibly drinkable and unbelievably complex, it tiptoes the line of aggression, taking the occasional step beyond the edge. Still an interesting creation to explore.

Pours a very dark brown with a moderately thick white head. The aroma is a mix of anise, grass, earthy hops, and grain. The amount of hop flavor is impressive, but the level of grainy tannic flavors is personally too much for me. It bites in a way that doesn’t work for me. An original concept for sure, but it tastes like too much piled on too little.

Courtesy Joey and Wayne. Had this when I visited the brewery. Pours a very dark brown color with a big tan head that shows great retention and leaving rings of lacing behind. The aroma shows notes of dark chocolate, licorice, piney hops, roasted coffee, and spices. You get a lot of the same notes as the 110k. The flavor is very roasty and hoppy. Dark chocolate, anise, coffee, and spices show prominent in the flavor. There is a little bit of licorice in there as well to go with pepper spiciness and bitter hops on the finish. This is really full flavored for a "small" beer, and so easy drinking with the 3.5% abv. Medium bodied, roasty, and very easy to drink with a bitter dark chocolate finish. This is definitely original and full flavored. It is crazy how much flavor and hops are in this beer. Another great beer from CCB.