Cigar City Big Sound Scotch Ale Bourbon Barrel Aged

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

Serve in Thistle

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Bottle shared by Plovmand at Theis and Mette tasting. It pours pitch black with a tan head. The aroma is quite sweet with notes of dark chocolate, caramel, vanilla, alcohol and oak. Flavour is sweet with notes of bourbon, dark fruits, oak, caramel and dark chocolate.

2009 bottle shared by duffmansw. #51 of 246 released. Murky brown pour with thin boobly head. Aroma is really interesting with sweet molasses and toast. Taste is pretty sweet with some chocolate and mild bourbon. Pretty tasty!

UPDATED: AUG 17, 2011 Brown with a small tan head. Aroma of malt, bouron and vineous alcohol. Sweet and malty flavour with a slightly tart tannic note and some oak. A bit cloying in the sweetness and with notable alcohol

Bottle (2009 - 69/246) at home - Tasting. Cloudy red/brown - offwhite head. Bourbon, licorice, fruity, roasted, sharpness, coconut, dried fruits, high malty, nice balance.

Bottle. Thanks Hopscotch!!!! Pours dark brown with a medium tan head. The aroma is buttercotch, sweet caramel, vanilla, wood, bourbon and some toastedness. The flavour is sweet caramel, sweet malt, bourbon, wood and dark fruit. Nice balanced BA’ed beer.

750mL bottle, 2009 vintage, #5/246. The beer pours to a deep rusty brown body with a thin white head. The aroma is sweet tobacco malts with barley and brown malt. Very sweet. The flavor is sweet tobacco malts with lots of residual candi sugar sweetness. The palate was hard drinking. This was not a good beer to finish the night.

#5/246, big thanks to Jason. Pours muddy reddish brown with thin off white head. Aroma has notes of vanilla, caramel and toffee, some brown sugar, slight chocolate and dark fruit notes as well. Taste is big dark fruit, with notes of fig and toffee, molasses, lots of brown sugar with a bourbon note, finishing slightly sweet and dry. Good stuff.

#750mL bottle, 2009 vintage, #5/246. Poured deep reddish-brown with a fairly short-lived beige head.. just looked alright for the style. The flavor found sweet aged caramel and molasses notes at the core, with more nutty character as it warmed up.. sweet bourbon and vanilla eventually.. grainy and sweet on the back-end, with plenty more sugars if you need ’em.. sticky-sweet with more sugars on the toffee-ee finish. Medium-plus bodied on the palate with more sugars as it progressed.. just a decently-aged bigger scotch ale paired with tasty bourbon.

2009 750 ml bottle, #87 of 246. Aged nearly 2 years. The pour yields a hazy, dark reddish brown brown and topped by a small layer of khaki colored foam that recedes quickly to a thin leading edge of bubbles. Small patches of lacing cling to the glass and mostly rejoin the body below. The aroma starts off with huge oaky, bourbon notes along with vanilla to go with the big underlying malt bill of sweet caramel, nougat, and cocoa. Figs and raisins lend a nice earthy, fruity depth to everything. The flavor follows suit with the sweet caramel, nougat, and cocoa as the main component while dark cherries, figs, and raisins add further fruity depth and a nice earthy quality. Vanilla and oak soaked bourbon meld well with the fruits and the melange of malts. The bourbon adds a nice warming quality while the age has toned down the booze from when this was fresh. Nearly full bodied, but thinned a touch from the barrel with a creamy mouthfeel and subtle carbonation that leads to a warming, bourbon soaked fruit finish. This is a really nice beer that the bourbon barrel has added nice depth to an already good base beer.

Drank side by side with non-BA version. Poured dark brown with no head except very thin around the rim. Nose has similarities to non-BA version but certinly more vanilla and bourbon. The taste was certainly hotter than the 8.5% ABV would suggest. The heat somewhat over powers what makes the non-BA version so great. Maybe a year or two in a cellar would help but I don’t think so.