I Love Jai Alai

Yes, it is great. My first was in Orlando and I was blown away, but can't get it where I live in Texas. It has such a great refreshing flavor, perfect compliment to scorching heat and humidity!

 

Had it once. Excellent beer. I see you're from NY. You didn't find it in NY did you ?

 

I was fortunate enough to get a 6 pack in a trade. I immensely enjoyed 5 of them and felt the need to give 1 to my beer guy at the main local store, who has hooked me up throughout this year with limited releases. Sooooo good.

 

Me too...But alas, it's a little hard to get on the opposite side of the country-especially fresh.

 

Here in Miami Im fortunate enough to be able to get it 7 days out.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I was able to try this thanks to an extra tossed in a trade and was very pleased by a guy who lives in Texas who must have received his in a trade as well. It was awesomely refreshing, very tropical, and unfortunately gone in about two minutes. Wish I could get me some Cigar City way up here...

 

i just had this for the first time last week i went to florida, solid stuff much better on tap than the can in my opinion but its solid even in the can. its better than anything else i had while in the south i couldn't get my hands of tropicalia unfortunately but at least i got to try this and brought some back for some buddies here in Portland.

 

Revisited it a couple times recently and yeah, it's just such an easy drinking IPA that still has a citrusy hop punch while hitting that nice sweet spot between single and double.

 

Ya very good I agree. After about 5 weeks though it gets real different

 

I love lamp.

 

I've formulated the opinion (and we all know what opinions are like, though this one happens to be shared by a few beer friends in Florida) that Jai Alai falls off faster than any other IPA I can name.

When I was in Tampa in mid-May they had six-packs in the coolers at the brewery from February that I wouldn't have touched. I randomly got very lucky at (of all places) the Neighborhood Market by Walmart on Kennedy a few miles across town, finding Jai Alai on May 20 that has been canned May 18. I couldn't pass that up and bought two sixers, in part to prove my theory about how fast it drops off. It was a truly delicious IPA those first few days and I saved cans for the ensuing weeks. It was not the same beer even after only a week and almost all the aroma and flavor were gone just two weeks after the canning date. Floridians assure me it wasn't just this batch.

Amazing beer ultra-fresh, but not very special after that.

 

Yeah I hauled 2 cases back of this for my bartender when I was down there for vacation, plus a six pack for myself. Over the 2 weeks I was there I had about a case of it myself (and my son who doesn't like hoppy beer, this is his favorite the natty slamming fool that he is)

 

After a year of trying to get one I finally did so a couple of weeks ago and it was great (it was about a week old). I wouldn't put it above or even on par with some west coast IPAs but it was pretty damn close.

 

I usually check dates on the cans here in NYC and they're usually a month + old, was so happy to grab a 6 pack with that fresh 9/2 date

 

It's a great sport. So glad we are finally talking about something other than beer on here. So who is your favorite player?

 

I do think it is pretty unique. At least, I haven't had anything real close yet. Fresh Squeezed is the most compareable probably. It is one of those beers that takes a nose dive after a few weeks IMO. Getting it fresh is never seems to be a problem where it's distributed though.

 

To answer the OP's question first - most likely it is a tad overlooked and underrated.

I just finished a 1/6 keg of Jai Alai. Took 7 weeks to finish I frankly I didn't notice much difference between the first pull and the last. I never did a side by side comparison with some of the less than 10 day old cans I can typically find at Publix around the corner from me. The way I look at it there are a ton of great beers that I can't get super fresh for various reasons. I'm just thankful that I have ready access to this one! I'm actually heading to my Total Wine and More before work today to get a new keg - I probably will try something else as too much of even something as good as Jai Alai might not be a good idea. I'll have to see what they have in stock.