Cigar City Sea Bass

Brewed by Cigar City Brewing
Style: Sour Ale/Wild Ale
Tampa, Florida USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip, Tumbler

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750 ml shared by Larry. Pours a deep murky brownish woody deep amber with a thinning head. Aroma has a good amount of wierd funk to it- some brett and pedio- sour cherry/ cherry pie, wood, oak, mineral and metallic twang, dark fruits, earth and toasted dark malts with some herbs. Flavor is a bit muddy, yeasty, grass, more mineral, wood, earth, leafy, cherry pit, funk, bacterial twang, cherry juice hint and some funky brett- a bit muddled right now, but I think this beer will evolve for the better in about a year. Reminded me of my dark brett saison when young.

Whooops. Gusher....(Shrubber took the brunt of it’s force...thanks, buddy!) Cloudy, woody brown underneath the carpet of dark, solid foam. Scent is barnyard-funky...sour..vinegar. Taste is harsh sour overripe fruit. Not a huge fan of this one. I am, however, happy to report I detected no ACTUAL bass in the tasting.

Bomber (huge gusher). Musty lemon and sour malt aroma. Cloudy orange-brown color with huge head. Sweet-sour musty prune, straw, and light malt aroma. Mild acetic finish. Funky and different.

Bottle.Gusher which took quite some time to settle down, Musty, sour barnyard aroma. Hazy brown with a huge tan head. Funky sour fruit, wet straw/grassy bitter flavor. Medium body, dry finish.

I guess I ought to re-review this beer. Had it too many times at CCB, but this one is reviewed from a bottle bought at Delirium Hoppyloft Brussels. Light gusher. Brune/cuivrée opaque, col épais crémeux et persistant. Arôme est aigre voire légèrement balsamique, malté et fruits noirs. En bouche, aigre, vineux, léger pétillant acerbe sur la langue qui s’adoucit en fin de bouche. Ressent au milieu un côté fruité noir rappelant la prune voire le cassis. Léger malt biscuité avec une pointe de balsamique. Le profile aigre reste très approchable, le tout étant balancé par un malt plus présent. Agréable à boire, superbe à partager.

Pours ruby red with a tan head. Smells of red wine, oak, some hints of sour cherries. Tastes of oak, some sour hints, dry, some cherries, some residual sugar on the finish.

Bottle.Pours cloudy brown with big beige head. Aroma of malt, sour dark berries and farmhouse. Flavor is sour and sweet with some caramel, dark berries and funk.Medium body, average carbonation. Nice funky beer.

"At a gas station near the Cigar City in Tampa we found a lonely bottle of CCB Sea Bass in the cooler. It may be the only Conoco in the world that has ever sold a sour. The beer has been declared extinct, a casualty of a discontinued sour operation. Because of this, we were careful to decide where and how we would drink it, if this beer was going to be good, we were going to make sure that our experience was great. We sat outside at a picnic table in our backyard among the blossoming pecan trees where the wind was gusting enough to take away any of the South Georgia Spring heat. We made sure the beer was a nice temperature, around 40-50 degrees then we popped it open and poured carefully. Regardless of my husband’s rare attentiveness to the pour, this baby gushed up for what seemed like minutes. We didn’t wait too long for it to settle, we were there to drink. We had read accounts of bad batches, so we made our hearts ready for disappointment, but of course, it was not, it was beautiful. It was a head full of tropical fruits and flowers: it was so confident of how good of a beer it was that it didn’t care how fruity it was. Our delight turned into an instant nostalgia over this fabulous beer that would probably never be made again. I imagined I was a hedonist at the end of the world. I was savoring as though I had some sort of responsibility to do so because no one would ever have a bottle like this again. It was extinct, and perhaps I would be the only one left to carry its legend. As we finished we poured out the remains of the yeast from the bottle into our glasses. We contemplated what could be done with the numerous coco-brown colored organisms. We could keep the beer alive somehow by making bread, or using the living mass as starter for another beer. We knew this was crazy, though. We were seeing the world through the dark rose-brown-colored lens of the Sea Bass. This beer was gone forever, we just felt fortunate that we were ever able to drink it at all." -Reviewed by the wife

Bottle poured into a tulip glass. Pours a reddish brown color with a massive tan head. Nose is sour cherries, funk, and earthy aromas. Balanced out well with a nice maltiness. I’m usually not a big fan of sour ales, but this one is very nicely done.

Intentionally sour or not the recurring question with CC. I think this is intentional or maybe unintentionally intentional which makes no sense. Immediate gusher brown swamp water appearance. Aroma and taste mirror each other with dark fruits, funk, cherries, leather, and earthy dense basement flavors.

Dark brown pour that leaves a massive lively head. Great lacing, with a good bit of carbonation. Aroma and taste are farmhouse funk, brett, muscat grapes, rich dark fruits, sour apple. This beer also has a nice malt profile going on with the tartness in the finish