Cigar City Brewing Capricho Oscuro Batch #4 (365 Day 113)

By scot in 365 Days of American Craft Beer on Thursday, March 24th, 2011

Cigar City Capricho Oscuro Batch #4

Certain breweries pop to mind very quickly when talking about some of the best and/or up and coming American craft breweries. I think that Cigar City Brewing is past the point of up and coming: they are known by everyone. They have established themselves as a brewery that makes some solid beers with a few strange mixes and the desire to travel down the path less traveled (thank you Robert Frost).

In spite of all this hysteria surrounding the brewery, I have been very slow to achieve the same happiness with their beers as most of their fans. One of the first beers I had by them was Winter Warmer Warmer Winter, if stated that right, and I didn’t even grade it on the site I was so disappointed in the beer. I followed that up with a Jai Alai IPA which was quite decent but then came along the humidor series of the same beer: Jai Alai Humidor Series. That beer did absolutely nothing for me, it actually made me decide that Cigar City was on the avoid list.

I avoided them like the plague until I did Secret Santa and received some seven or more flavors of Cigar City beer. Yuck I believe was my first impression.

I have slowly been conquering these beers and each one seems to be better than the last with Capricho Oscuro Batch #4, beer #113, being the best of the pack. My group of friends may still think of them on the negative side, but I am a convert and welcome the chance for any solid offering from Cigar City. Enjoy!

Aroma: 10, Taste: 10, Look: 10, Drinkability: 8, Overall: 9.3

Useless Fact: The first female monster to appear on the big screen was Bride of Frankenstein.