Cigar City Warmer Winter Winter Warmer

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

750mL pours brown with bright copper edges and thin tan head. The aroma is a bowl of pureed dark fruitiness, some sweet caramel, some molasses, a growing sweet chewy cherry candy sense as well as a touch of chocolate malts and roasty malts. The taste is smooth and nearly slick (watch your footing) as it begins with sweet malts, a touch of chocolate and roast and then it quickly picks up robust notes of prunes, raisins, orange wedges and grapefruit. Interesting. With all that is going on here this mix struggles a bit to pull together. As it hits a heretofore unknown luke warm temperature the chocolate and roasty goodness come forward and wraps this up into a pleasing medley of flavor notes. I look forward to trying this with some age on it.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Deep amber orange pour, slight head, little lacing. Rich aromas and palate of toffee, slight cocoa, earthy and woodsy hopped, ripe pitted fruits. Boozy and warming. very nice beer.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

whoa nelly - this was a bit more intense than i thought it'd be. this english style barlwywine/old ale manages a ridiculous level of complexity. tofee, caramel, citrus hops, rye spice, and a strong chocolate undercurrent, bith in the nose and flavor. a wonderful sipper. if the sweetness in the flavor and the alcohol in the nose were toned down just a notch, this would be one of the very best.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

750ml bottle. Pours a murky dark amber with a medium creamy off-white head that retains well and laces the glass.

The aroma is sweet caramel and toffee malts with some grapefruits and some spicy piney resiny hops.

The flavor is some sweet caramel, nuts, and fruits with some spices (rye?) and resiny piney hops in the finish. The mouthfeel is medium to full bodied with smooth carbonation.

Overall, an interesting, fairly complex beer. It was a little on the sweet side for me, but I liked it. Thanks Solan!

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottled@The Chriso Gaylord Tasting. Ambery colour, small beige head. Aroma is caramel, fruits, chocolate and some slight notes of alcohol as well. Flavour is gluelike sweetness along with chocolate, caramel malts, some fudgelike notes as well as some mild notes of nuttyness.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Towards the end of 2-weeks of record low temperatures, so decided to crack this open on a COLD 30 degree FL winter evening. I have been trying to save this for a little longer since I missed out on opening it during the holidays...but figured no time better than the present. Anyways, back to the review. This reminded me of a hybrid beer, sort of like a cross between a belgian strong, brown/red ale, and a DIPA. It poured a dark amber color. Kind of semi-clear in the beginning, but towards the end of the bottle got cloudy cause of the sediment I guess. The flavor were mostly sweet...malty and sugary. Seems like there is almost too much brown sugar up front in this one. Little bit of roast/smokey flavors.....from the humidors perhaps? The finish has a nice citrusy hop flavor, which resembles many IPAs. Also reminded me of the hops used in their Humidor Ale. This was probably my favorite characteristic of this beer. Didn't blow me away, probably not worth the price, but overall a decent brew. I also don't mind supporting a local quality brewer and trying something new, versus saving a buck for a "bread and butter" West Coast beer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

My first from a local State brewery. A deep reddish brown color. Moderate creamy white head. It settles within a short time into a far more impressive lacing. The alcohol rises to the nose. Sweet brown sugar and piney hops follow. The body is creamy and robust. As big a bodied ale as the wide bottomed bottle. The tasting is akin to the aroma, malt, hops and the bite of alcohol.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Being from the north it’s hard for me to grasp the "winter warmer" idea living in Florida from a Florida brewer but hey, it’s 50 degrees, damp and pretty darn cold today so here goes! Deep amber-brown color topped with a thin tan head. This is rather citrusy in the nose with a lot of pine needles and some toffee and rye. Surprisingly strong hoppy flavors, pine with a citrus twist. The hops remind me of Improvisacion with a damp bitter leafy-pine taste. A good dose of toffee and caramel malt to sweeten it a little. A lingering hoppy finish with plenty of rye, also reminisient of the Improvisacion. I think this one could stand to be less hoppy allowing some of the other flavors to come through a bit more. What I didn’t pick up from the brewers description was the chocolate. A touch of smoke mid palate that I’m not sure if I like or not. Overall this beer is pretty good but it’s subpar compared to many other Cigar City brews and falls a little short of my expectations.