Cigar City/Mikkeller Gypsy

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

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   add pic

Wow, when held up to the light this beer shows a massive hop haze, that is really not unexpected considering the ridiculous amount of hops that this thing was dryhopped with. It is hazy and is a orange tinged, light amber color when held up to the light. The beer on tap is over-carbonated so ends up with a huge, frothy, dense, pale tan colored, three finger thick head in the Cigar City Snifter. The aroma is just hugely about the hops. There is no real malt character noticeable, but it is an awesomely satisfying hop nose; floral, herbal, pine and a massive fruity hop character scream out of the glass. The fruit hop character is the most dominant of the hop aromatics and contributes notes of amped up citrus, lychee and floral tropical fruit. The fruit character is nicely balanced / held in check by herbal and pine aromatics though. While the hop aroma on this beer is totally agro, it is still in check and balanced for those hop-heads that can’t get enough.

Hoowhee, that last bit of thought certainly doesn’t apply to the flavor; huge, aggressive, scathing, tongue flagellating bitterness, astringency and over the top green hop flavors grab on to the palate, run rampant and thrash it all to hell. The body is fairly light actually (nicely hits the needs of a good IPA) and would be quite quaffable if the hop character wasn’t so utterly depraved.

Theoretically more than 300 IBUs and it certainly tastes like it.. No mercy is shown with this beer & note of the beautiful, though aggressive, floral and fruity hop character (and don’t even pretend to ask about any puny malt notes) from the nose doesn’t have remotely enough showing in the flavor to make this conventionally enjoyable. But, but, I still enjoyed this beer; not just as an exercise in excess, but it manages to be fun and also goes to show that yes, you actually can over hop a beer :-)

A very, very bitter IPA from CCB, which is pretty surprising. Slightly biscuity, mostly dominated by tropical fruits and a bit sweet. A good CCB IPA, but not stellar.

Swingtop. Thanks dave! Pours a cloudy burnished medium amber with a loose and sudsy white head. Huge forceful grapefruit nose. Creamy medium body with lively carb. Toast, caramel, and tons of oily grapefruit on the mid palate. Grapefruit and blood orange finish.

Floral hoppy nose on top of some toasted dry malts, some caramel is there as well. Lightly fruity cityrus and lighter fruits such as apricots. Pours amber, sone haze, bubbles, thin foam ring. Caramel, toasted malts, a little much caramel here and there but the dryness is nice and kills the light iced tea notes. Nice bitter floral hops, citrusy. Bitter and dry. Chewy lingering resins. Long dfry finish. Thankd Dave!

Thanks Alex and Dave! Pours a darker caramel gold with little head. Caramel bready malt, light pineapple, deep resinous pine...although the sweetness lingers throughout. Not as sweet as the nose suggests, sticky mouthfeel, great piney and bitter hop flavor throughout, light lemony citrus notes on the end. Would welcome more of this.

An orange amber IPA with a thick creamy moka head. In aroma, a superb fragrant hops, pinhey and resinous, wild grass, quite nice. In mouth, a classic resinous hops, biscuitty malts, super smooth, oily mouthfeel, rich and balanced. On tap at brewery, Jan 5 2011.

1/15/11. Growler shared at the Sea Bass going away tasting! Huge tropical fruit aroma full of guava and mango. Awesome sweet malty flavor couples nicely with bitter hops and lovely tropical fruits. Very nice!

On tap at Cigar City Brewing. It pours deep pure gold with huge tan head, due to the one slim they were serving from was a bit over carbonated. The aroma was pulsing mega watt powered citrus hops that were here, there, they were everywhere along with much lesser amounts of spicy hops and pine. Yum! The taste is equal to the nose with assertive malt sweetened tangelo, grapefruit and pineapple like hoppiness that runs from front to back in this brew. It was crisp and refreshing with loads of hop flavor and only sprinkles of hop bitterness around the edges. I could drink a ton of this stuff. It hides the ABV very well.

Growler… Tampa “Farewell to Sebletitje” Tasting… Pours cloudy and golden with a small, creamy, white head. The aromatics consist almost exclusively of musky, funky, tropical fruit hops – the muskiness dominates as this baby literally smells like my armpit after kicking back in the Florida sunshine in January for about an hour and then realizing I forgot to deodorize. In other words, not as pungent as going to the gym and doing an hour and a half of cardio without deodorizing - but certainly musky, musky, musky! Medium to full-bodied with soft carbonation. The flavor is bitter, bitter and bitterer. Lengthy ridiculously bitter finish… even a touch metallic (nickel). Growler courtesy of TampaBrew!

Cigar city gypsy. 1 liter swing-top... Pours a dark caramel toffee, mostly opaque with frothy and soapy white head... Aroma is very assertively hopped with soapiness, floral, and citrusy notes, some sweeter sugary maltiness in the background... Flavors are pretty hop forward with an adequate sweet biscuity maltiness to go alongside it. Pretty assertive bitterness all around through mid-palate through the finish. Aroma started things off nicely but the flavors fell a tad short.

thanks kan! pours hazy with white head. nose is pungent grass and pine. really big and messy but fresh hop aroma. flavors are grassy pine, orange citrus with big malt caramel presence. balanced, really big and juicy but not a great blend of hops here.