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Cheating is frowned upon in almost every aspect that it can occur.  Athletes on steroids, big no no.  Being unfaithful to your significant other, way bad.  Having a nice big piece of chocolate cake while on a diet, probably not as bad as the previous two examples but in many minds it’s still bad.

Well I think I have found one instance where I cheated and it’s okay.  Hear me out first before clicking back or the X in the corner.  You see I have had the beer I am about to review numerous times in the past.  But it has always been off tap that I have enjoyed it.

Cigar City now makes their Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale in bottles.  And I for one think this was a great idea.  Ever since the first time tasting it at last years Jupiter Craft Brewer’s Festival I said this needs to be in bottles.  Well now it is.  And now I have some bottles to enjoy in the comfort of my own home.  So let’s see how it is.

The top is popped and I pour the brew into my Cigar City snifter.  It lays in the glass a dark brown color with a sandy tan head.  It looks a lot like a cola in the glass.

The smell is bursting with cinnamon and oats.  This really reminds me of the draft version so far.

The moment the first sip hits my tongue I know what it is.  Lots of mixing of raisins, cinnamon, oats and a little bit of vanilla.

The bottle is dead on to what I was hoping it would be.  It tastes just like the last draft I had.  And most importantly it tastes just like an oatmeal raisin cookie.

Many breweries make beers that have a certain food in the name and a lot of the times they fall short.  But when a brewery can make a claim and call their beer something like Oatmeal Raisin Cookie and have it taste like that then they have done something magical.

Great job to the boys at Cigar City on this one.  You hit the flavor profile dead on and made an amazing beer.

Grade - A

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I always enjoy drinking a brew from Florida’s own Cigar City and I know Maduro will be no different.  I’ve had this one plenty of times on draft and now that 12 ounce bottles are available I just had to pick this up for a review.

Recently a very well know and well respected person in the craft beer community took a pretty public low blow at Cigar City for this beer.  He said that it tasted like “dime store chocolate” and that his brown ale was much better.  The individual also proceeded to bash Cigar City’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ale as well.  But I won’t get into that.  You can do some searching and probably find out about this if you wish.

So I poured the beer into my nifty Cigar City snifter and it came out mostly brown color.  There were some hints of very dark red in there as well but brown is the color.  The head was a very thin tan head that was gone very quickly.

The smell brings forward scents of oatmeal and cinnamon mostly.  But there is some hints of tobacco as well as a slight smokiness to it.

The taste is awesome.  A nice rich blend of oatmeal, cinnamon and milk chocolate come out first back by a roasted malt character.  There is a small cameo by a coffee taste but not for very long.  So all is well to me.

I have to admit this was a pretty easy review for me to do.  I’ve had this beer many times before and have loved it ever since the 09 Treasure Coast Beer Festival where I had it for the first time.  This is an awesome sessionable brown ale.  And while I like the other brewery’s brown ale as well, this one is just fuller in body and flavor.

Florida go out and get your hands on this beer.  If you aren’t in Florida and want this beer, let me know.  We can try to work something out.

Grade – A

Appearance – Pours a very dark brown.  It looks black but if you hold it up to light you see it’s brown.  No head at all.

Smell – Vanilla and bourbon are the strongest point of the smell.

Taste – The bourbon is immediate and there pretty much throughout.  There is vanilla notes from the barrel and some sweet caramel along with some faint roasted malts.  Not much carbonation and a little syrupy.

Picked up a growler of the acclaimed Dark Matter at Vine and Barley in Pt. St. Lucie.  This is a brown ale aged in bourbon barrels.  The bourbon is very apparent but not overwhelming like I thought Black Ops was.  There wasn’t a lot of carbonation to begin with in it even when the growler was freshly opened on Monday.  I then finished it last night.  Definitely worth trying if you haven’t had it and can get it.  We don’t get any Brewmaster Series kegs down our way so we have to travel the hour or so to Vine and Barley.  They always get the Brewmaster lines in.

Overall Grade – B+