Cigar City Humidor Series Jai Alai Cedar Aged India Pale Ale

Brewed by Cigar City Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Tampa, Florida USA

Bottle thanks to dchmela! Pours reddish burnt orange with a creamy, lasting off-white head. Aroma is a balanced and well rounded mix with lemon zest, pine, orange, earth, vanilla, mint, and a gentle woodsy touch. Tastes of caramel malt and brown sugar at first with nuts, light vanilla, toast, gentle orange and lemon, leaves, and just a subtle hint of nutty wood warmth. The finish brings out a bit more wood and light vanilla fading to a buttered toast, bitter grapefruit, and earth aftertaste. Bitterness cuts the sweetness effectively. It’s well rounded throughout and the balance is impressive. Medium bodied, chewier than the normal IPA though with creamy, nearly soft carbonation. Most excellent!

750 ml bottle courtesy of dakine. I was saving this for a special tasting, but due to a change in job status it looks like I’m not gonna make any tastings any time soon. Pours a slightly hazy copper color with a big rocky white head that has great retention and lots of sticky lacing. The aroma is strong, sweet and spicy with sawdust(cedar I presume), citrus(oranges and lemon), hops and a bit of candy. The taste is compliments the aroma nicely, toffee malts meet citrus and pine in a smooth drinkable way. The hops are pleasantly biter without being harsh or obnoxious. This strikes me as a maltier version of Pliny, very nice. The palate is a bit uneven starting thin and building a to full, almost chewy, malty conclusion. The finish is long and dry with lingering caramel malts and lightly biter hops. Overall: This is a very good IPA, one of the maltier IPA’s that I can remember. I look forward to drinking it again sometime in the future.

750 mL bottle from Knightly Spirits in Orlando. Dark orange pour with a thick, creamy off-white head. Big grapefruit, pineapple, tangerine, and wood aroma with a faint malt sweetness. Bitter grapefruit taste upfront; the cedar is certainly present and adds to the bitterness of the grapefruit. Sticky mouthfeel. The cedar actually blends beautifully with this beer and makes for a wonderful tasting experience. I’m once again impressed by this brewer.

My Bottom Line:
A boastful cedar cologne graces this very drinkable IPA, leading to a nice citrusy and resinous finish. Malts seems accessory here, but this is highly engaging for the hop and cedar lover.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam covers the cloudy beige.
-The cedar perfume is quite peppery, almost stinging.
-The malt apport is quite understated. I would have preferred a bit more presence.
-I hope I can taste the regular Jai Alai next to this one soon. That would be a most pleasant evening, I’m sure!

Bottle.

750 ml bottle shared by pineypower thanks Dean for sharing yet another great beer!!! Man I loved wood aged beers and I am lucky enough to have had 3 in 2 days starting with this rare gem. Poured a hazed orange/amber with a long lasting tight creamy off white head. Aroma was lots of fresh hops and the cedar while this beer was still cold was hard to detect but as it warmed it came out more and more. The flavor was a nice combo of cedar and fresh hops with a big emphasis on citrus rind. The palate is where this beer really let me down and somehow it was super creamy and thick in the mouthfeel which I found distracted me from the flavor. Great beer overall just wish it was a touch thinner in the body.

750ml bottle at Sylvain’s tasting. Nose has lots of fruity hops and a lot of cedar perfume. Taste has lots of cedar with some hops. quite fruity. Finish is very dry and bitter. Lots of cedar also. Cedar is very present but rather enjoyable. I only had a sample and I’m not sure if I would be able to drink a full bottle of this all by myself. Interesting stuff and I’m very happy I had the chance to try it.

Bottle thanks to Mcbackus. Pours out an attractive cloudy orange color with a thin white head. Aroma is of earthy cedar, citrus hops and some sweet malts. Taste is very full bodied, woody cedar notes with some citrus hops, some sweet malty notes and maybe even slight fruit in there. Cedar comes through more as it warms up. I’m a big fan of this one, the cedar adds a real nice unique flavor.

Bottle thanks to ericandersnavy. The look is orangish in color, beige colored head. The smell is cedar, citrus, malts, and caramel. The taste is malts, hops, citrus, slight wood, and some bitterness.