Cigar City Humidor Series Jai Alai Cedar Aged India Pale Ale

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

Deep golden color with a modest off-white head. Big aromas of pale and toasted malt, tropical fruit, wood, pepper ,citrus and cardamom. Flavors are sweet with plenty of fruit. Spice and wood dry things out. Pepper and cedar completely take over. I didn’t find the cedar too subtle. I actually found it to be rather forward. I think this would age well on a long journey. A bit sharp on the moment.

Pours Texas orange with a dense whipped eggshell colored head. Full rings of lace halfway down the glass. The is a cedar delivery mechanism. Its like I’m sitting in a cedar closet, while chewing on some cedar mulch. There’s plenty of underlying hop character, but cedar is the story here. Medium body with some oil. Y-U-M-M-Y.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a few months, but I figured an IPA ain’t gonna be getting any better - pours a lightly hazy copper, with an impressive, fluffy, lasting head - sticky lace - semi-sweet aroma of citrus and tropical fruits, herbal, dank hops, barely noticeable cedar - the flavor is fairly sweet at first, with strong papaya and mango character - then the bitterness sets in - tasty, but bordering on astringent at times - the cedar is present, but subtle at first, just kind of hanging out, doing nothing, neither adding to nor subtracting from the character of the beer - however, things get kind of dry and woody in the finish - too much so - it tastes like I’m chewing on a hunk of cedar - it doesn’t help that this is the exact point where the hops tend to get a little astringent, either - mild returning sweetness on the very tail end,with lingering mango and guava - there are certain aspects that are overdone/out of balance, but it’s not terrible.

Bottle from The Juice, thanks again. Hazy orange color with a fleeting head. Nice floral hop, musty wood, caramel aromas. Medium body. Good bittersweet floral hop flavor with caramel, earthy cedar, mineral. Great IPA.

Cloudy golden tangerine pour with a soapy eggshell head that left mountainous chunks on the inside of the glass. Ripe grapefruit, orange peel, Ponderosa pine, and wet wood fill the nose. Flavor is candied citrus, resin, and just a hint of cedar. Medium mouthfeel with ample carbonation. A little thick and syrupy. Very good.

bomber from rustychiles opened 9/27/09 with the crew. beautiful brew.... bright orange brown... rather reminiscent of butterscotch. hazy to start becoming cloudy toward the bottom. it is capped by a fluffy white head which deposits a bunch of spotty/drippy lacing on the glass as it settles. the first smell is a blast of nothing but wood... later, notes of mango, soapy florals, dust, pine and citrus are noted. the cedar carries over to make a dusty pine flavor which mixes with citrus, caramel, black pepper-y spice and earthy wood. it finishes lightly dry and somewhat bitter but neither are enough to counter the underlying sweetness. medium body with lively carbonation and a little grittiness or minerality to the texture. 8/5/7/3/15/3.8

Rating #1400! 750mL bottle. Very bitter with a nice smoothness and sweet flavor that must be from the cedar. Unique and quite delicious. The cedar is subtle. A unique mouthfeel that is almost chalky and quite dry.

Bonus bottle from bucwild. Thanks! When I first opened the bottle and took a whiff, I was a little surprized. It smelled like strong chlorophenols, like pinesol floor cleaner and chlorine. I thought, maybe they mashed with heavily chlorinated water. It wasn’t until halfway through my glass I realized it was a piney aroma from the cedar wood. I poured it into my glass, where it had a nice offwhite head, and amber color. The taste was like a red grapefruit. Lots and lots of citrusy hops, which could have been accentuated by the pineyness. Light melanoidin sweetness, and very easy to drink. I admit I didn’t like it until halfway through my glass, probably because of the novelty, but I now I like it a lot, again partially because of the novelty, and because I understand where the aroma is coming from. I guess it could be like sour beer. At first it’s disgusting, then you don’t die from drinking it, then your body says " Hey this is good stuff," then you love it.