Evander - Cigar City Brewing

UCLABrewN84

California

3.5/5  rDev -0.8%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Thanks to GRG1313 for sharing this one at his tasting.

Pours a clear orange-brown with a foamy khaki head that settles to a partial film on top of the beer. Foamy streaks of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of malt, brown sugar, and spice aromas. Taste is much the same with spice flavors on the finish. There is a mild amount of roasty bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp and medium bodied mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer but nothing too exciting in my opinion.

Serving type: bottle

05-07-2013 03:57:10 | More by UCLABrewN84

steve8robin

Massachusetts

3.76/5  rDev +6.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thanks to RomaniIteDomum for sending me this brew in a trade. I am a huge fan of CCB. All beers I've tried are great. Let's see if they can deliver once again. 750ml bottle...

A: A deep dark reddish brown brew pours with a 1 inch khaki colored head that fades quickly. Very good.

S: I get spices right upfront. Smells of hints of cinnamon with allspice and maybe some nutmeg. A mild malt scent follows with a very slight cranberry. Decent.

T: It starts out with a sparkling water taste that is quickly taken over by some citrusy, spicy dark fruit which slowly mellows down to a mild sweet malt on the back. An almost rye taste follows the palate from beginning to end. Decent.

M: Medium body with a hard carbonation. A sweet malty finish. Good.

O: Overall, this is a good beer. Not one of the best CCB offerings, but still a solid brew. I love this brewery! It seems like all of there brews are drinkable and have some good flavors going on. Thanks for sharing Steve!

Serving type: bottle

04-06-2013 00:36:39 | More by steve8robin

RoamingGnome

Wisconsin

4.03/5  rDev +14.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Cigar City Evander

Split this bomber with my buddy Jeff. Thanks for hauling some tasty beers back from Florida pal. Poured this into two CBS snifters. Served chilled...

A) Burnished brandy... Two fingers of fluffy light tan head. Slowly settled to a dusting. Nice Lacing too.

S) This is all about the spices. Nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, and some ginger. A little sweet, with ample spicy zest.

T) The base of the flavor is the brown ale, but this one really follows the nose nicely from a spice perspective. Nice aftertaste too.

M) Medium body with moderate carbonation. The spices give it a little tingle. Easy drinking...

O) This is was a nice beer. Reminded me of a Christmas seasonal. A good one at that.

Serving type: bottle

03-22-2013 13:45:13 | More by RoamingGnome

thagr81us

South Carolina

3.93/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4

Big thanks goes out to 67couple for sharing this one at a recent Random Sunday Tasting! Served from bottle into a Mikkeller flute. Poured a deep red brown with a half finger off-white head that subsided to a minimal amount quickly. Maintained nice lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, gingerbeard, licorice, nutty, earth, oatmeal, cinnamon, and burnt plastic. The flavor was of sweet malt, gingerbread, spice, earth, dark chocolate, oatmeal, and toasted malt. It had a light feel on the palate with medium carbonation. Overall this was a fairly good brew. If I am honest, I was kind of surprised when I picked up on the burnt plastic in the aroma on this one. At first it wasn't that noticeable, but then I swirled the glass and it drop kicked me in the face. Not sure where it came from but I am QUITE glad that it did not show up in the flavor at all. The flavor was a little more typical of the style but some nice spice and gingerbread notes that helped to keep it interesting. Worth your time trying this one if you get the opportunity.

Serving type: bottle

03-09-2013 17:04:47 | More by thagr81us

Alieniloquium

Florida

3.71/5  rDev +5.1%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

750 mL bottle poured into a wine glass. Bottled 1/22/2013.

Appearance - Deep brown with red flecks. Decent khaki head. Wisps on the surface and a thick collar.

Smell - Dominated by spice. Cinnamon most predominant. Something a little more herbal to it as well though. I'm terrible at identifying these spices. Something like vanilla behind it.

Taste - A little more malt forward than the smell implies. Very spicy, but blended. Cinnamon and that herbal spice still dominates. Malty in the middle and heavily bitter from spices in the back.

Mouthfeel - Medium carbonation and medium bodied. Even slightly heavier than medium. Well balanced malt and bitterness.

Overall - It's nice. Heavily spiced, as their specialty brown tend to be. Oatmeal Raisin is the apex of the series, but this holds its own. I wish they told you which spices they used.

Serving type: bottle

03-02-2013 01:38:05 | More by Alieniloquium

macrosmatic

Florida

3.56/5  rDev +0.8%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Reviewed from notes. Poured from 750 mL bottle into a Russian River pint glass.

A: Dark brown in color, but nearly clear when held to light. Forms a thin tan head, but quickly fades to foam; low visible carbonation.

S: Sweet brown malt, potpourri spices (ginger, nutmeg, allspice?), along with the tinny smell I get from a lot of browns (I don't know what this is, but I don't think it's "off"). This smells like a Christmas beer.

T: Sweet, roasty malt, with the seemingly standard Christmas spices. It isn't offensively heavily spiced, but there isn't a whole lot else going on here.

M: Body is on the thin side, low alcohol presence, and moderate carbonation.

O: This is fine, I think a reasonably good spiced brown ale. It's just not a style that I particularly enjoy.

Serving type: bottle

02-11-2013 13:19:55 | More by macrosmatic

shand

Florida

4.31/5  rDev +22.1%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25

Evander pours out a great ruby-brown color with a finger of head. The aroma offers up some of the coffee and chocolate notes of the base Maduro, but with a big Christmas spice pile right on top of it. The taste has some of the classic Maduro flavors at first with some ginger on top, but the big spice hit that comes in for the finish is incredibly reminiscent of Sugar Plum. It's not quite identical in execution, but in honestly, the base beer is the same, and the spice treatment is very similar. The main difference would be more of the Maduro peeking through at the start, and a slightly more ginger-heavy spice mix with something that's adding just a hint of tartness on the finish. The mouthfeel is just about identical to Maduro - it's got a body on the light side of medium, with a very smooth feel. The drinkability is very good. Overall, this was another tasty spice treatment from Cigar City, but was it really about three times better (I paid 9.99 for my bottle, which IIRC was what I paid for a six of Sugar Plum this winter) than Sugar Plum? Not really.

Serving type: bottle

02-09-2013 00:33:20 | More by shand

Lare453

Florida

3.93/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

Large bottle into a dfh glass

A dark cola brown, tiny khaki head, head dissipates fast leaving a thin small ring and small islands of bubbles on top, no lacing...

S nutty, spicy, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove

T I wasn't expecting much, but pretty damn good. Big clove up front, the middle is a little nutty with more cinnamon and clove. The end has more clove and the brown nuttiness comes through. The after taste is pumpkin pie spice without the pumpkin...

M moderate carbonation, average to a tiny bit thick.

O maybe a little late in the season for a spiced ale. Seems kinds Christmassy... But good one the less. Not really suitable for aging I'd assume so I guess I'll drink it now. A good beer, solid, reminds me of anchor Christmas beer.

Serving type: bottle

02-02-2013 01:01:36 | More by Lare453