Cigar City Jai Alai IPA

My first beer from Florida, and they totally have no idea how to make a label. Seriously, these colors are just wrong for this label, and I had a hard time reading the brewer's name, the location, and the ABV. This is a terrible label. This will go down in the annals of history as one of the worst labels ever. But I'm here for the contents of the can, so let's dig in.

The beer is a copper and honey color with a nice white head that is... clumpy more than sticky. Lacing is pretty minimal, but I've seen worse. The aroma is simply dripping with citrus and tropical fruits. So, clearly we have some citrus hops in our IPA, and we seem to have so much that there isn't really much malt getting through, but what there is kind of grainy.

First sip is pretty good. The malt is keeping the bitterness at bay while the orange, lemon, and mango hops are going their thing to the whole dang mouth. It's nice enough, but it is like sucking on the peel of some new, strange tropical fruit. Maybe a swig will help.

Tip-in is a LOT more malt than I had tasted before. It's a kind of doughy malt, and it is starting this off pretty well. As the middle comes, we switch to the hops with their citrus and kind of caustic nature scraping the top of the mouth, but the effect isn't bad at all. The finish is a wave of tartness followed by a more rind bitterness.

Bottom Line: Not a bad IPA at all. Definitely better ones out there, but this could fill a niche.

2.75/5

Jeremy's Juxtaposition: Too low grade...3.5