Cigar City Batch #69 Double Cream Ale

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

Serve in Snifter, Trappist glass

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Tap at Cigar City. Pours a light hazy golden orange with a smaller creamy off white head that laced. Aroma of tropical fruits, grain, nice hop touch. Flavor of the same. So smooth and deceptive.

Entering old-rates. Couleur orange-ambre, col épais blanc. Nez fruité houblonné bien malté et restant doux. En bouche, une bière traitre par sa facilité à boire, mais les 9% arrive bien discrètement. Palais est doux voire crémeux le tout accompagner d’une belle dose de citron et agrumes laissant une fine amertume qui est compensée par un malt doux, caramel qui reste en retrait avec une pointe de sucre. Pourrait passer pour une belle DIPA.

Poured clear and golden smelled of bread caramel and a lot of alcohol tasted very mellow for amount of alcohol very boring but drinkable

Pours deep amber with notes of dried fuits. the mouth goes deeper with a longer hint of tree fruits such as apples or even pears in sweetness. Heavier on the body with nice long finish.

Draft at WOB (Land O Lakes). Pours a clear amber Orange color with a sudsy beige head. Aroma is pretty sweet with prevalent alcohol notes and hints of candies Apple and grape. Good flavor with a tony bit of hop bitterness in the mostly sweet finish.

on cask at rattle n hum. poured a nice hazy orange. the cask really brought out the aromas and flavors in this one. Sweet and very smooth for the alcohol level

80th rating of CCB. Yellowish pour. Cereal, corn, unripe stone fruit both in the aroma and flavor.

Swingtop thanks to David. Pours a clear caramel color with a large white head. The aroma is sweet corn, alcohol, caramel, sugars. The flavor is a hot beast; grainy, sweet sugars, caramel, fruity, dry, a lot of sugarcane-like sweetness, very warm. Decent, a bit rough around the edges, something of a strong E-European lager slides in at the finish.

Booze. Apples. Corn? Some vanilla. A dust of cinnamon. A boatload of booze. At least Genny doesn’t make me feel like a hardened alcoholic.

Appearance: hazy oranges with a touch of amber here and there. White head fades fast, lingering as a broken collar while a film in the middle resembles a spill. Solid haze all around gives it an almost ethereal appearance.
Nose: spice, heat, vanilla, meringue, powdered sugar. Def can tell the heat from his higher ABV which magically rides the border between too much and too little. White table crackers and melba in the back. Crunchy cooked and cooled sweetness. Vanilla cream resembles the vanilla cream filling found in vanilla cream cookies. Dry spice abounds, complimenting the heat and the crunch. Apple skins and cinnamon.
Palate: sweet and sticky up front, then smooth, then grows dry and lovely. Creaminess leads to spice to dry to chest glowing warmth. Apple skins and caramel melt into aged rums and fine brandy, mulled if you please. Sticky lips; caramel and vanilla cream. Melba, bread crust, white table crackers underneath. Cinnamon sticks. Vanilla in the breath with a puff of powdered sugar. Quaffable.
Final Thoughts: a standard cream ale is hard enough to find as it is, so a double cream ale is a rare beast. Leave it to Cigar City though to take a classic misunderstood beer, amp it up, and make it taste so darn good. Simple and complex at the same time, soothing and appetizing. A winner all around.

An orange amber ale with a thin white head. In aroma, nice grainy malt with burned caramel. In mouth, a nice sweet oily malt with caramel notes, light British hops, medium bodied. On tap at brewery, Jan 5 2011.