Dos Costas Oeste - Orange Wood Aged - Cigar City Brewing

fmccormi

New York

3.58/5  rDev -2.5%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

12oz pour hand-pumped from a firkin (so, on cask) at Redlight Red Light in Orlando, FL. Poured into a stemmed Rodenbach Grand Cru tulip (nice looking glass!)

Appearance (4.0): Two fingers of coarse foam, bone-white; dissipates somewhat quickly, with minimal retention or lacing. The body is a warm, orange-ish golden color with just the slightest chill haze. This is an attractive beer; the head is disappointing, but considering it’s on cask this actually seems about right.

Smell (3.5): There’s a warm, distinctly Belgian yeasty character layered on top of a modestly sweet, biscuit / sweet bread scent from the malt body. Just the lightest bit of spicy and a very nice, smooth fruit character—like peach juice—round out the nose. It’s good, not as spicy as I was anticipating but good all the same.

Taste (3.5): Follows the nose in every respect. The yeast character is extremely fruity, like a moderately syrupy mix of orange and peach juices. A bit of warming alcohol, but it shows less than most “saisons” would at 9% ABV. The taste is really just like an agreeable, fruity BSPA rather than a saison—bit of a spicy twang in the throat on the finish, but it’s lacking most of the rustic, spicy character I would have expected (and was hoping for). The orange wood, I have to imagine, is contributing a lot of that peachy-orangey fruitiness, along with the smooth, viscous feel.

Mouthfeel (4.0): Cask beer, through and through. Slightly syrupy with a warming finish, and nearly still—the carbonation tingles lightly on the way down, but that bubbling action stops at that. Full side of medium-bodied. Pretty much exactly what you’d expect a 9% Belgian Pale would feel like if cask-conditioned like an English pub-style real ale.

Overall (3.5): This is actually pretty tasty, but it’s just not quite a saison at this point in time. It’s a moderately sweet, fruit-forward BSPA served on cask, as opposed to being the rustic, earthy, fiery, spritzy kind of beer you’d expect a good saison to be. And on that note, I don’t think cask conditioning was the right move for a beer like this—the body and feel, while matching my expectations for a good cask ale, don’t suit the saison style particularly well, in my opinion. Still, definitely glad I tried this beer. The orange wood treatment was unique and added some very interesting, full-flavored fruit tones to an otherwise very familiar style.

Serving type: cask

12-07-2012 13:25:31 | More by fmccormi

PorterLambic

Florida

4.3/5  rDev +17.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Arrives dark amber/orange with but a light ring of foam encircling the rim of the snifter. Clear and bright.
Smell is malty citrus with a note of woody hops. A light spiciness accompanies a sweetness.
Taste is a well-balanced blend of malt and woody hops, alcohol, spices and orange peel. Very nicely done.
Smooth, full-bodied, well-balanced. Slightly warming with a slight coating of the palate that the effervescence and hops cut through nicely.
For what its worth, this went really well with baklava.

Serving type: on-tap

12-16-2011 17:26:44 | More by PorterLambic