Cigar City at The Porter

Last night Mrs. ohtheguilt and I hit up The Porter with another couple (Joel and his wifey) to sample the recently tapped Cigar City Brewing kegs (and a cask). If you haven't been to The Porter, go there...the beer selection is incredible, and the food is pretty decent too.

Anyway, we decided that we should go ahead and sample some of the CCB brews that we can't normally pick up in our area. We started off with the Jai Alai cask ale. Jai Alai is CCB's year-round IPA, and is quite a good brew in general. The cask version was (obviously) a bit different than the bottles we have had. The cask pours very hazy and is certainly less "hop-forward" than the bottles...almost a muted, lighter flavor. The brew is still hoppy, but has mellowed in the cask...not bad.

Next up was Warmer Winter Winter Warmer. This brew is touted as an English-style barleywine. Again, we were not let down. WWWW was extremely sweet with hints or raisins, figs and (probably) other dark fruits. As a warmer, it wasn't as spiced as most, and as a barleywine, it wasn't as boozy as most...overall, a pretty balanced and fun brew. Glad I have one in the cellar...

Our third taste was Improv (an Oatmeal Rye Brown Ale)...Joel ordered this one, so I really just had a brief taste...not enough to form a truly informed opinion, but certainly enough for a description. Improv poured really dark with lots of oatmeal and roasty/almost burnt aroma. The taste is a bit lighter than expected and sweeter, as well. Sounds like it opened up a bit more upon warming...I'd like to try this again.

For our finale, Joel and I split a 750 of CCB's Humidor Series IPA...

Needless to say, the Humidor Series beers are all aged on cedar...this one is actually a version of Jai Alai, but (obviously) aged on cedar. The cedar aroma is very obvious, but the hoppiness is still noticeable, but has been mellowed by the cedar, making the beer very smooth and drinkable. Unfortunately, this one isn't exactly available in Atlanta...or at least not off the shelf. However, it was certainly a nice twist on a very good base beer. Go try to find this...

Overall a nice evening with good friends and some pretty damn good beers. Now I'm really excited to crack open my CCB cellar stash (a great X-mas gift from my father-in-law)...