Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout

Brewed by Cigar City Brewing
Style: Imperial Stout
Tampa, Florida USA

Pours like black coffee with a creamy coffee head, smells like cocoa, wafers, licorice, brown sugar, molasses, basically it smells very sweet but not sickly so. Taste is semi-sweet chocolate, with a floral hop presence, coffee, brown sugar, and spicy vanulla...the mouth is lacy and a little gritty towards the finish. The alcohol is warming and welcome.

hand bottle and a big thanks to flossmoorbrewalum for sharing! pours black with creamy tan head. nose is rich with dark coffee, dark chocolate, and peppers. flavors of dark chocolate, licorice, chili peppers, coffee, slightly burnt malt going on, with a mild but lingering pepper in the finish. all flavors are in nice balance and this is very smooth beer.

Tap. Holy cow, was this good! The malt is a heavy dose of toasted, coffee and molasses, medium resin for the hops, earth for the yeast, with hints of tar, alcohol and soy sauce in the background. Head is small, creamy, dark brown, with some lacing and great legs and is mostly diminishing. Color is black. flavor starts moderately sweet and acidic, then finishes moderately sweet, lightly acidic, heavily bitter and a touch sour. Palate is full, between creamy and syrupy, with a soft carbonation and a dry and astringent finish. Packed with a ton of flavors and aromas, nothing subtle about this beer. A superb Imperial Stout.

Many thanks to JoeMcPhee for sharing this - man, this is a pretty pour - viscous, black, dark tan head - cinnamon is very prominent in the nose, as are the chillies, but there are notes of dark chocolate and vanilla - full mouthfeel, soft carbonation - the flavor is rather smoky up front, followed by fairly potent chili pepper spiciness - sadly, the chillies also add a fairly pronounced vegetal character through the middle - bitter dark chocolate and cinnamon generate a quality similar to mexican hot chocolate - the spice from the peppers last through the finish, and a mild tartness and astringency develop - I want to love this beer, but I simply like it.

On draft at the tasting room party. The appearance was good but not great, I think that I’d like to pour this into a snifter before deciding if it deserves a 5. The nose has strong, strong chocolate that meshes well with some notes of vanilla. Didn’t detect much of the pepper until it got warmer. The mouthfeel is extremely creamy and just divine, and the taste very closely follows the nose. There’s a great blend of chocolate and vanilla with no coffee or burnt malt taste. Don’t notice too many hop flavors either. Not too sweet, just right. The pepper hits the back of the palate gently but isn’t as significant as I expected. Lived up to my expectations, and I cannot wait to try this again. Also, it’s preposterously easy to drink two or three glasses of this.

Enjoyed at the Flossmoor Station RB tasting, 1/16/2010: This poured a thick dark brown body capy by a short tan head. The aroma was sweet roasted malt, chocolate, vanilla, sharp grass, and a dash of mild peppers. The flavor was heavy, syrupy with the dark malt, complemented by vanilla, a hoppy bitterness, cocoa, anise, and damp wood. The ancho came around near the end along wth a soft sour twist. I never picked up on the cinnamon. The finish was sweet/sour and peppery. Nice.

22 oz bottle courtesy of fishingnet. Thanks, Ben! Pours a thick viscous black with a dark brownish head, laces ok and films. Aromas are a blast of dark roasty malts, cocoa, vanilla, a touch of peppery spice, a blast of bittering hops, coffee. Initial is big and bitter, hops and roasted malts, vanilla and dark chocolate is very dominant, in the raw, very bitter, the malts and hops take over, the light heat grows on the back of the palate, not being a shocker, moreso a light dusting, growing and complimenting the roast well. Bitter, thick and covering the palate well. The heat grows in the belly, but lightly, nothing to overtake the flavors of roasted malts, coffee, and chocolate with pretty prominent bitterness. Licorice and subtle chalkiness, the beer really works well for dessert. Very nice. Rerate pending

Chitown RB gathering Jan 2010: 22 oz handbottle graciously shared by Adam. What a nice way to start the hours of drinking...

Basically opaque with a lasting tan head and very good lace. The aroma has notes of pepper, chocolate, vanilla, smoke, leather, anise, and cinnamon. The taste was more malt forward with the spicy components more of an accent than expected, that said the dark fruit and grassy hops work nicely. Some espresso and smoky notes as well. The mouth feel is a bit chewy and slightly aggressive, a tad chalky as well. This is quite nice and is the 2nd CC brew that actually met my expectations. Yummy!