Cigar City "Oatmeal Raisin Cookie" Brown Ale

Cigar City has been VERY average. Their lager was the sole flyer at 1.75, and that puts that particular beer below average on my scale. Everything else has been between 2.0 and 3.0, and those beers are generally just fine, but they have a lot of headroom to move up. Time to give them the chance to move up with this one.

The very dark brown beer doesn't spill out much froth, and the remnants after settling are naught but a light tan ring that grips the side of the glass. The aroma is scorched toffee, nuts, and brown sugar. I'm not usually all that nuts for brown ales, but this one is dragging me in with a complex, well-thought-out presentation of a liquor-like sweetness with more complexity than alcohol.

First sip is sweet with cinnamon, toasted oatmeal, dark fruits, earth, and then a bitterness. It's certainly got the complexity I suspected was in there, but the center of the beer is hollow and dry, and that seems like it doesn't fit. Of course, as you probably know, a sip isn't how we leave these things - we swig.

Tip-in is light carbonation tickling with toasted oatmeal, brown sugar, and earth. The middle flows with dark fruits and smoothness that I never expected to be there, and they are highlighted by nuttiness. The middle is where the flavors start to swirl with more nuts, cinnamon, spices, raisins, and trailing toasted oatmeal.

Bottom Line: Unique and complex - they may be getting very good.

3.25/5