Cigar City Capricho Oscuro (Batch 1)

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

Sampled at CCB. Pours a very deep dark woody mahagany brownish almost verging on black with a nice lasting tight head. Aroma is nice woody smoke, with roast and chocolate malts, light woodyiness, wet hairy dog earthiness, big chocolate and wierd puppys breath type notes, and a huge sweet nutty chocolate tootsie roll from the Bolita- everything is in here, pretty big, but nothing overpowering the others. Flavors are also woody, smokey, lightly hoppy, huge big toasted brown malts, some caramel, tons of chocolate, and some woody cedar notes and hints of leather. I really liked this one.

12oz bottle from the man himself tpd975. Drank out of my DFH Snifter on the eve of an important day, and I wanted to drink something special. Pours much like an Imperial STout, black with a light brown head. Nose is quite smoky and rich. Taste is sweet, smoky, rich, with wood, and cedar and damn this is tasty and all in all a big f’ing beer.

Bouteille de 12 oz partagée lors d’une dégustation Ratebeer Montréal chez moi. Arôme: Odeur de noix grillées. Apparence: La couleur est noire opaque. Présence d’une d’une fine dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût d’alcool et de noix grillées avec une pointe chocolatée. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture légèrement huileuse. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Arrière goût légèrement fumé. (Rating #2340)

In short: A brutal highly roasted woody dark beer of some kind. Original but way too brutal.
How: Bottles 12oz. Consumed fresh a week after TaktikMTL bought them at the brewery
The look: Near black body topped by a tan ring of foam
In long: Alcohol fumes and burnt wood/nuts on the nose. The beer is very sweet with a lot of burnt brown sugar. High roastiness gives a slight smoke/ashes flavour. Alcohol is upfront and totally out of control. A nice woody/nutty character with burnt wood and roasted almonds. A light dark fruit flavour. To me the woody/barrel character (for once not bourbon) saves the day. This beer is truly brutal (way too brutal for me) but still manages to have some class. Like a foulmouthed sailor in a tuxedo yelling that Pavarotti is fucking great.

My Bottom Line:
Within this idiosyncratic strong ale thrive pungent cologne-like cedar notes, roasted, chocolate malts and caramelized sweetness for a most complex, but almost overpowering alcoholic sipper.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A slice of foam tops the brown-lined blackness.
-The roaming fruitiness approaches cherry and plum territories.
-A touch of smoke is found within.
-The body is quite healthy and not super rich, as is custom with many American super heavyweights.
-That cedar barrel presence and its accompanying alcohol fumes are too much for me to really fall in love with this brew.
-The finishing resinous hop bitterness fits perfectly with the cedar apport.

Bottle.

Very dark brown. Thick head. Spicy, toasty aroma - roasted red pepper, strong cedary/oaky notes and chocolate. Very oaky, with big creamy chocolate and raisin. Lots of great fruits. Nice unique crazy brew.

A: Pours a very evil deep dark black hue. The head is towering. It is very spongy and deep brown like you would find on quality mocha. The head bubbles and fizzes as it builds like a witches caldron. It builds and builds before quickly dying leaving a brew that is matte black in color. Some light lacing is noted as this one disappers. S: Bold aromas waft from the glass. This beer was created by blending 5 of their other beers together and notes of each can be detected. To call the aroma intoxicating would be an understatement. Tons of sweet chocolate seems to swirl into fresh espresso. Oak and vanilla come next with notes of fine bourbon whiskey. Man I wish I had a corney keg full of this one, if I did I would be set for awhile. T: Wow, the aromas really transfer into the taste. Nice roasted malt up front with layer after layer of chocolate. Coffee comes next only to be overpowered by wood....both oak and cedar. Vanilla pushes its way thru only to be overtaken by bourbon whiskey goodness. A touch of smoke rounds things out. To call this beer complex would be an understatement. M: Full in body, velvety smooth, with wonderful carbonation. The flavors really cling to the mouth and throat adding to full enjoyment. D: So drinkable this is the third Cigar City Brew that I would label as Out Of This World.

Thanks Todd for sharing...Awesome beer very complex flavors with I could have some more..CCB is awesome