Enjoying My Coffee
Cigar City Brewing

Poured a black body with minimal head and no lace. Boozy and mild java notes hit me in the nose. The beer itself is "scary-easy" to drink with a mildly boozy coffee taste with lactic and woody slickness and lightness which belie a mild chocolate sweetness. Beer itself is well-balanced and finishes clean so you just keep drinking.

Tonight’s beer is a 2019 CCB Enjoying My Coffee. Previously an El Catador exclusive, but an allotment was available as part of the 2021 Huna Day mini celebration. CCB back in the day was a go to brewery for me, but now I rarely visit their offerings (with the exception of Zhukov). This is a new to me beer, a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout with coffee and maple, let’s see how it’s drinking.

Pours an incredibly dark black with a head as dark as I’ve ever seen on a beer, yea darker than Zhukov event. Head dissipates down pretty quickly but leaves some lacing throughout the drink. Aroma is huge maple, just massive, with really big coffee and prominent nutty notes; maple cinnamon roll if you will. Base beer characters come next with big roasted malt, moderate degree of tobacco. Surprisingly the barrel notes remain very prominent with rich bourbon characters of vanilla, charred oak, a bit of smoke. Phenomenal nose. Taste is very good, much less adjunct heavy although I don’t think that’s necessarily a negative and the barrel remains very prominent. Great base beer notes of rich chocolate fudge, roasted malts, a bit herbaceous, some coffee, leather and tobacco. Terrific barrel characters with huge bourbon notes. Interestingly I get almost no maple. Some bitterness rounds out the complex and intense flavor profile. Mouthfeel is very full bodied, it’s a big and bold beer. It’s more drinkable than some of the other big CCB imperial stouts, but it’s still somewhat limited due to the richness. Not sure what the ABV is but it’s essentially unnoticeable. Overall, this is quite the beer. I don’t need 750mL of it, but hey that’s on me for cracking it when no one else who drinks beer is around. Curious as to how this was fresh as I imagine the maple was more prominent in the taste. Either way, I enjoyed this quite a bit as is.

4.5/4.75/4.5/4/4.5

 

 

 

 

 

750ml bottle poured into an El Catador snifter. Pour a thick, viscous, deep dark black with no light emitting and a tan colored head. Lot of coffee, molasses, bourbon, and booze on the nose. The mouthfeel is thick and chewy with moderate carbonation. The taste is sweet, roasted and charred notes from the malts, espresso, and a lot of heat in the backend. Overall, another solid El Cat beer.

El Cat. 750ML bottle. Which I’d like to plant in a Yankee skull right now. Fucking Yankees.

The beer is black & smells like coffee, which seems simple enough.

Enjoying My Coffee is what my wife does daily & I never do. Frankly, the coffee is overpowering. I get little malt, little bourbon, some serious alcohol.

Weak. Normally Cigar City does the balance thing to a beautiful extreme, but his one is all messed up & all coffee all the time. Decent.

 

 

 

Deep brown head that dissipates quickly. Pitch black in the glass. Coffee and bourbon notes on the nose. Rich deep flavor of coffee without the bourbon being over-powerful. Slightly thin on the mouthfeel.