Jai Alai India Pale Ale

www.cigarcitybrewing.com

Brewed by Cigar City Brewing
Style: American IPA
Tampa, Florida, USA

Founded in 2007 by Joey Redner, Cigar City Brewing, is a craft brewery in Tampa, Florida, the Sunshine State. Joey had previous experience with Dunedin Brewery (Florida’s oldest microbrewery), and was also a well respected beer reviewer with the Tampa Bay Times, so it was no surprise when he decided to start up his own beer enterprise.

Working with top brewmaster Wayne Wambles (Yes that’s a real name!), their first batch was a Maduro Brown Ale. Additional beers followed, including Jai Alai IPA and Florida Cracker Belgian-style White Ale. Since then, Cigar City’s Spruce Street brewery has expanded to include a 15 bbl and 30 bbl brewhouse, a packaging hall and a tasting room. The company has grown to produce 170,000 barrels of beer annually with distribution in 39 States.

Ratebeer.com a site I often frequent, or at least post up these shitty beer reviews, had Cigar City Brewing as the 3rd best Brewer in the World for the year 2010. Impressive indeed.

Review: 355 ml can of Jai Alai India Pale Ale: 7.5% vol.

The name of the beer is a reference to the sport, Jai Alai, a game native to the Basque region of Spain, which is played on a court called a fronton. Jai Alai players attempt to catch a ball using a curved mitt, whilst the ball travels at speeds of up to 188 miles per hour! Tampa was once home to a busy Jai Alai fronton but sadly no more. At least Jai Alai India Pale Ale remains!

Bought it very cheaply in a six pack in local supermarket store. Thought it was an Indian beer because of the funny name and interesting colours on can, two colours that are on the flag of India!

On the pour get a very big frothy white head, all nice and a lovely golden coloured brew.

A good bit of carbonation going on, quite a lot actually, which results in a damn fine looking beer. A lot of lacing too, shows quality.

Smell is a typical IPA, hoppy piney notes and caramel sweetness, all nice on the nose. Get the tropical fruits, the grapes, the orange peel and the citrus and lemon, and an earthy feel to it. Good start.

A typical IPA taste, not too bad, easy enough to drink but perhaps a tad bit boring, needs more of a kick or a standout flavour to get it going. Now I often criticize over hopped IPAs but at least there is something there to taste, this has nothing really that I can decipher that stands out.

The Hops are there alright, and manageable, well balanced for sure but nothing to really excite the tastebuds. Its hard to imagine that this has 7.5% in alcohol, as I cant taste it, it looks like it was neutered in the taste, bit light for an IPA.

Orange peel, citrus, caramel and malts, with the hops. Ok for the style, but its boring. Nothing to see here unfortunately…….