Cigar City Jai Alai

This isn't the first Cigar City beer I've had, or even the first time I've had Jai Alai, but I know that I haven't reviewed one of their beers on here before, so it's long overdue. Cigar City is located in Tampa, Florida and get their name from the fact that the first brewery in Florida was started by cigar industrialists. As an homage to those pioneer brewers, they also named a few of their beers with the cigar theme. For instance, there's the Maduro Oatmeal Brown, and their Humidor beers. Jai Alai, along with the Maduro Oatmeal Brown are their only year-round offerings, which is a little unusual for a brewery, but their seasonal beers definitely make up for it. Their distribution stretches sporadically along the east coast, but their claim to fame mostly comes from their once a year releases of Marshall Zhukov's Imperial Stout and it's variations.

The beer pours a hazy copper with a one finger off-white head. There's a fairly substantial amount of lacing left in the glass even though the head dissipated to a thin dusting on top after a few minutes.

The aroma initially has a strong citrus hop character up front, but it does seem like the malt comes through as well. A lightly toasted bread scent wafts through the thick resins to blend and provide a certain level of sweetness.

The first sip of the beer has a distinct biscuit quality to it, giving way to some hop resin flavors. After swallowing a decently bitter aftertaste swells up in the mouth. The citrus comes through somewhere in the middle, striking a balance between the bitter and the sweet. It's somewhat of a creamy citrus quality, like an orange creamsicle rather than a tart and sharp citrus flavor. The flavors are robust, although the bitterness is a little sharp.

In the mouth, the beer has a medium body, with a high level of carbonation. In the mouth it has a decent amount of coating from the resins. It's refreshing and a little malty rather than dry.

Overall it's a very good IPA. While not the best I've had, the flavors are a little different from the usual IPA. It's bready, a little sweet, and has a substantial bitterness in the back. I suspect it's not really fresh, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. I know I've had this beer before and remember it being extremely good, but it was also on draft. Either way, it's certainly worth a try.

- Adam