Cigar City Jai Alai IPA – White Oak (365 Day 20)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer on Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Cigar City Jai Alai IPA - White Oak

Sometimes our conceived notions about an American craft beer or brewery can be based on a small subset that isn’t indicative of the whole. Cigar City probably will surprise many of you that I have feelings about their beer that aren’t in line with most. I have had more flavors than marked on the web site and, outside of Jai Alai, none of them have sparked my fancy.

Now before you jump down my throat, let me add that I feel I am a very unbiased rater of beers, trying to give just about anything a chance. If I have a really bad beer, I usually assume that it was infected, wanting to give the beer another go around to be fair. For some reason, Cigar City beers have just not done it for me. And, in a way, to back this up, the group of TNBC guys has been harsher on their beers than I have.

So my secret santa send me seven beers by Cigar City. At first I thought trade, then I said no: time to give them another shot. First beer up:

Jai Alai IPA – White Oak is the same Jai Alai that I mentioned earlier it has just been aged on oak. Gimmicky? I very quickly found out no. Take the base IPA that I liked and had a layer of complexity that blows this thing into outer space. Vanilla, white oak, and more all add to the aroma and taste. If I had the mean to get this beer on a regular basis, it would be in my fridge on a regular basis. Get this one if you have the means as you will not be disappointed by one of the most complex IPAs out there. Enjoy!

Aroma: 10, Taste: 8, Look: 10, Drinkability: 9, Overall: 9.2

Useless fact: In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.