The Florida-based Cigar City has started to lump their review towards the good end of the scale (as seen at the bottom of this review). I love a good Belgian ale, so this might really go over the top and join Florida Man as a beer in the excellent category - a rare enough category that less than 13 percent of all my reviews manage to get in there.
The beer pours a hazy, deep brass with a reasonable amount of head that boils down to an almost complete covering across the top of the beer with a strong ring around the sides and traces of lacing in its wake. The aroma is bread malt and Belgian yeast. It smells really good, and I really, really want a drink right now.First sip has the requisite Belgian yeast and a smooth bread malt with caramel and toffee mixed in for good measure. It is a smooth and somewhat sweet sensation, but bitterness and dryness are ever present. I say ever present, but it's just a sip. It's not like the whole thing lasts forever - it's just a couple seconds at most. Nevertheless, it manages to give me both sweet and dry in addition to the bitterness, and that's quite a bit of complexity for a simple sip.
Tip-in is light carbonation with caramel and yeasty goodness. The middle turns smooth with bread and yeast rising to meet toffee in the middle while caramel continues to imbue the beverage with it sweetness. The finish is abrupt dryness with bitterness following closely behind as caramel and earth hit for the trail off.
Bottom Line: Complex and pretty darn good.
3.25/5