Cigar City Humidor Series Jai Alai Cedar Aged India Pale Ale

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

She pours a cloudy orange color with a noticeable haze and a magnanimous, beautifully proportioned white frothy head that is cappuccino like and topographic. It only takes a mild, playful splash to completely rejuvenate the head to a condition superior to the original pour. The aroma is nothing like I’ve ever experience before in an IPA: though evergreen (in the form of pine and spruce) and orange-citrus come through obviously, there are unique notes of angel food cake dough and yeasty breadiness that prevail as well. The malt sweetness is very subtle, with notable incarnations of light nectar fruit, mandarin, tangerine, and ultra sweet tropical fruit sugars. The flavor is out of this world unique: at first I as met with doughy, bready, and caramel oriented malt sweetness with is closely followed by lightly resinous orange, peach, nectarine, and spicy pine. The bitterness is much more balancing than the aroma would suggest, allowing for a wholly delightful quaff. The arrangement of flavors is not only complex, but well placed with excellent levels of each. The palate is full for the style with supple effervescence and a caressing pillowy mouth feel. She finishes clean, but not resinous; smooth but not slippery. One of the most unique IPAs I’ve had to date- the cedar aging presents a unique facet that is hard to place a finger on, but is surely detectable. I was pleasantly surprised that the oxidation levels of the alpha acids remained minimal- good to have this fresh I suppose. This is my first Cigar City brew to date, and the trend will dictate many more in the future…

750ml bottle. Poured hazy golden in color with a small beige head. Aroma of citrus hops, pine, and sawdust. Tastes of lemon citrus hops, caramel, pine, cedar, and earthy hops. Not bad.

Lightly hazy, amber color with a small, off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of citrus fruits, some pine, floral hops, cedar and caramel. Taste of citrus, pine, tropical fruits, grass, dry cedar tannins, and a medium bitterness at the finish. Thanks for sharing Joe!

I love the plain ol’ Jai-Alai much more. This isn’t bad...it’s just not great. Aroma, appearance, mouthfeel...all fine....as you would expect. The cedar overtones are certainly unique....but it’s just a bit too much for me. Other folks find this to be a strong point...and that’s fine. I picked up a few extra bottles...can’t wait to have friends try it....very interested to hear what they think.

Bottle Shared with Gabe. Poured A nivce orange color with medium head. Aroma was strong cedar wood and hops. Taste was weird, kinda like smoked cedar and a hoppy IPA. Texture was smooth and not bad to drink. Unique for sure.

Bottle from Ibrew2or3. Shared with swolf3. Poured into a snifter, orange almost red hue. Decent head. Funky aroma... I guess thats the cider. Taste is dominated by the cedar.... Unique, still holds the good qualities of an IPA but the cedar kind of takes away from the taste. Funky not tart but just different. Medium texture, easy to drink. Overall: its unique but I like the classic style of west coast hop bombs... Sculpin, Alesmith IPA, Racer 5 and etc are alot better.

100th rating! Pours golden with off-white head. Strong cedar flavor matched with lots of pine hops and some malt sweetness. A really good barrel aged IPA.

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.