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Tasting Notes: Cigar City's Hunahpu Imperial Stout
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Hunahpu in a tasting glass from Brass Tap, Wesley Chapel
Tasting Notes for Cigar City Brewing’s Hunahpu Imperial Stout
Beer Style: Imperial Stout
Enjoyed at: Brass Tap, Wesley Chapel during special event
Price: $6 per glass
11% ABV
Currently available at Cigar City Events
When winter cold fronts rear their heads and Floridians can finally open windows that have kept summer at bay, then generally it is the time of year when the rest of the country heads indoors for annual hibernation. The trend among brewers is to release higher-alcohol beers to warm drinkers through the cold winter months. It is in this spirit that Cigar City Brewing has brewed its Hunahpu Imperial Stout this year.
Head Brewer Wayne Wambles came up with this recipe as Cigar City’s first competitive beer. The guys brewed this one before the brewery was fully operational and sent a cask to the prestigious Atlanta Cask Festival in Georgia’s Capitol. The then-fledgling brewery not only blew the judges away with this beer, but they wound up taking first place and turning many heads. Thus the legend of Hunahpu began.
The label describes the beer and the namesake: “In Mayan myth, Hunahpu gave cocoa to the Mayans. The base recipe is Marshal Zhukov Imperial Stout. It is aged on pasillo and ancho peppers as well as vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa nibs.”
Hunahpu pours a fierce dark brown with a thin dark brown head. When swirled and smelled it smells of chocolate, roasted malt, all manner of chili pepper spice, vanilla, coffee, and depth that promises to deliver more if one dares taste it. The flavor begins with sweet chocolate and is followed closely by biting, prickly peppers that enhance the flavor as well as poke the tongue. After the initial flavor the beer will deliver a freight train of chocolate, spice, vanilla, cinnamon, peppers, and leave the mouth with sweetness of chocolate.
This beer looks formidable, tastes deep and complex, and delivers unique flavor and a relatively high alcohol content (11%). This beer will usually go well with dessert—when poured at Brass Tap in Wesley Chapel, they served the beer with a chocolate-covered strawberry to enhance the flavor. This beer is deep and robust and is best enjoyed as a nightcap or after dinner while sitting outside under the stars, pondering the mysteries of life next to the fire pit.
For more information on the availability of Cigar City Brewing’s Hunahpu Imperial Stout visit http://blog.cigarcitybeer.com or stop by the brewery at 3924 W Spruce St Ste A
Tampa, Florida, USA 33607 Wednesday through Friday from 11am until 5pm.
Cigar City wins the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting in 2009 with Hunahpu
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