Cosmic Collision
Cigar City Brewing

 

5 oz mini-snifter pour at Lures Bar & Grille. Aroma and flavor feature toffee, candied citrus, honey, vanilla, and hints of oak and tannins. Complex and sweet but not cloying or overly boozy. Very reminiscent of an aged sauternes. A tasty beer to try but not one I'd want to pay for a full bottle.

 

 

 

 

 

Bottled 8/7/20. Poured at 56 degrees. Deep amber/ruby brown with deep brilliant color and excellent clarity; light tan mixed bubbles/rocky head; ok cap retention, solid ring, soapy lacing; lots of suds, thin legs on swirl. Nose is white dessert wine/Sauternes; grapey retro nasal. Honey, toffee, apricot, caramel, oak and vanilla; sweet dessert wine with a dry oaky bite. Slick, vinous feel; medium full body; moderate carbonation; very little warmth. Overall an awesome BA ale that looks like a Barley Wine, smells like a Sauternes and tastes like Tio Pepe Sherry with layers of malt flavors; the most interesting ale I’ve had this tasting and one I won’t soon forget.

 

First off the bench from the 12th Edition El Catador Club is this 500ML bottle with parchment colored wax & label. Split with my wife (I’ll take the second if it’s good enough).

Dingy brownish red with little bubblies. The nose is odd & less beer/more liqueur. Leather, dark fruits, peach (?), booze. Interesting.

Cosmic Collision is a dick kick of booziness. Straight grain alcohol jump-starts the brain & the palate hits the panic button to notify the liver. INCOMING! Tons of complexity here. Peach foremost (the barrel, I presume), oak, dust, leather, toffee, apricot. Sticky. The booze might make it difficult to drink a gallon of this.

One of the more interesting beers of 2020 for me, which is what El Cat is for, right? Very good beer bordering on excellent.

Capped and waxed bottle received from Roguer in a Lif associated with Bif 12

Wanted to open a special beer for Thanksgiving. My first El Cat and my first review of this style

Pours a deep cola brown , a two finger taupe foam cap quickly settles to a halo around the rim of the snifter, no lacings

Aroma of dark fruits, figs , raisins on the pour from the bottle.malts, brown bread . More dark fruits, leather , wood. I get a wine aroma but not Sauternes

Taste is dark fruits , wine notes from the sauterne aging. None of the super seeetness of a Sauterne . Adds the wine flavor but not the sweetness . Figs, raisins , figs and raisins

Low sudsing fizzy sudsing , abv very well hidden , get a taste of the alcohol but none of the heat,luxurious and rich . A sipper

Great beer, delicious wheat wine

 

Updated my rating after 2nd bottle drank 6-2023

Cigar City - Cosmic Collision
A sauternes barrel aged wheatwine ale clocking in at 12.4%

Pours a completely opaque dirty brown color. An aggressive pour generates a three finger sudsy tan head that steadily dissipates until just a thin ring of velvety foam remains along the outside edge of the top of the beer. The aroma on this is just incredible - Notes of dark fruits, spiced dark bread, earthy - almost woodsy - notes with a touch of leather. There is a certain booziness to the aroma, but its not unpleasant or out of place for the style. That sweet wine barrel aging comes through underneath the other aromas providing a pleasant winey-sweetness. I suspect that woodsiness also is coming from the barrel. This is one of those beers that I could just sit and sniff.

Taste follows the nose with hints of dried leather, dark fruits, earthy wood and bark notes and some generic spices. The sauternes barrel takes a much more prominent role in the flavor profile both with the barrel character and also with that sweet grape wine flavor coming through in the beer. It is a boozy bordering on hot. This is one of those barleywines that I think would do well with aging, but I had no patience for that. As theater warms the back end of the beer shows more dark fruit flavor with a lovely woodsy vanilla bean note to it. Absolutely sublime. Feel is medium to full bodied. Smooth, hot, somewhat dry - moreso on the finish.

Holy shit, this is a hell of a beer. I will admit, I am a total sucker for CCB's barleywines and this (wheatwine) was no exception. I think this takes the position as my top beer for 2020.

Murky; almost no head.

Boozy aroma; BW-like notes of caramel and earthy hops, bark, and leather, along with sharp wine barrel influence.

Smoother on the palate; wine influence is still present, semi-sweet, a cross between port and fruited dessert wine. Restrained but balanced bitterness; heavy emphasis on dark malts. Dark fruit, dark bread, caramel, toffee.