Xbalanque
Cigar City Brewing

Poured a black body with minimal khaki head and lace. The aroma is basically cinnamon and chili peppers so it burns the nose ever so slightly (like a really good hot sauce). Medium to heavy body, sticky, vanilla bean sweetness and cinnamon spice. Moderate chili heat and a touch of boozy heat as well on finish. Beer has good balance and a slow sipper but still easy to drink with a good smoothness to boot.

 

Cinnamon & chocolate on the nose; chili pepper as it opens up. Rich, clean flavors, w/ a good bit of baking spices, oak, & vanilla. The roasty coffee on the tail finishes a tad bitter & boozy; overall there’s a great balance here.

 

Received from @doctorzombies. Very grateful because it’s excellent. Standard stout appearance. Minimal head and lacing. Purple edging. Smell is wood barrel over roasty stout. Taste is sweet, boozy, syrupy. Feel is lighter for a 11.5 abv than expected, but it’s goddamn boozy. Excellent beer.

 

750 mL bottle. Inky black. Smells woody, sweet, almost maple-y, dark fruits, light spice and cinnamon. Tastes sweet and woody, cinnamon, fruity, a little spicy. Sweet and heavy. Fascinating wood flavor, but very sweet and boozy.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Sabtos for feeding my unending & slightly warped need for all things Cigar City. If I ever become a serial killer, it will be for this brewery. 750ML bottle split with the wife.

Pours blackish. No head. The nose brings all the classic Huna poses plus plenty of raw, unprocessed wood. It adds.

Xbalanque tastes like getting down on all fours & licking that freshly hewn palm tree right on the forest floor. Holy wood, Asa. The taste is utterly unique: like a barrel, only with vague spicing that’s almost rye-like, searingly dry, like an exotic birdhouse bathed in cinnamon & allspice & fresh love. The chile peppers are subdued compared to the base Huna, which is smoothed out by the vanilla. Cocoa nibs are MIA. The finish, like the forebears, is pure wood. Smooth & spicy, this is a stout that should be sipped in front of a roaring bonfire while singing Freedy Johnston choruses.

As a Journalism Major (long, long, long ago) I am not used to being at a loss for words, but I’m struggling to find the right ones for this unique, beautiful beer, so I’ll go Germanic: einzigartig und wunderbar.

 

 

 

750ml bottle into an El Catador Club snifter. 2019 vintage.

This is Hunahpu’s aged on Amburana Wood. As a result, you get a lot of the great flavors of the classic Hunahpu’s with a nice added character from the wood aging.

 

 

 

 

Much love to @Roguer for giving me the chance to try this one!

Pour is an oily black with no head whatsoever.

Nose is deep dark roasts with classic notes of chocolate and coffee buried deeply under a perfumy wood that's almost reminiscient of chicory. I know nothing about Amburana, but I have no doubt that's what's giving it this character. Really interesting and fairly unique character coming off from that.

Flavour is similarly dominated by the wood. Sweet and woody with a touch of smokiness and some nutty character almost verging into husk. I've not had the base Huna (yet!), so I can't comment on comparison there, but this iteration is unique and quite tasty, though it is decidedly a sipper. The sweet perfuminess of the wood is best in small quantities at a time, per my opinion, but those small quantities are quite delicious.

Super smoothe and mostly flat, the high note on the finish carries through to a definite alcohol presence that's not harsh, but I've had bigger stouts that hid it better.

Overall this is fantastic and I'm glad to have gotten to try it. Thanks Andrew!

Still tons of cinnamon. The amburana wood adds a chicory-like savory woody note.

 

 

 

The treatment to this version of Huna seems to have given it a little more body. It's big, full and round, and has an earthy woodiness with notes of marzipan and red licorice before a powder dry, slightly warming finish with a toasty cinnamon exhale.