Cigar City Brewing Jai Alai India Pale Ale aged on White Oak

Here we have another Cigar City Brewing, in Tampa Florida, Jai Alai India Pale Ale aged on White Oak, 7.5% ABV. Jai Alai is a Spanish sport played in Florida at a Fronton, which is stage a with two walls where either two or for players throw or bounce a ball off a wall using long Xistera which look like a wicker basket worn on ones hand to score points. Anyway, Alai India is also Cigar City’s flagship IPA, which this version is aged on White Oak. This is probably the only IPA I’ve seen that age on White Oak, let alone anything similar and yes I have had the non-aged Jai Alai, but haven’t yet reviewed it. This White Oak aged Jai Alai pours a copper color with a thick two finger white head with rather good retention and an earthy sweet piney aroma with some slight dill and vanilla. Taste is quite interesting with the White Oak adding some vanilla and dill to the piney earthy, hoppy grapefruit Jai Alai base. You get the earthy notes up front with the grapefruit and the pine right behind that and in the middle of the mouth you get a faint vanilla flavor that becomes more pronounced in the back of the mouth with a little dill flavor. The mouth full is just about full with a nice sweeter/bitter finish for an IPA, and that leads to the after taste of a slight hoppy vanilla that linger until you hit glass again for another sip. This is an interesting concept for an IPA.  The White Oak adds more of a flavor punch to an already good flavored IPA. I give this beer a B+. Its good and no one flavor stands out over any others, they all work well together and are balanced. If you like IPAs and oak aged beers then this, Jai Alai India Pale Ale aged on White Oak is the beer you’ve been looking for. I recommend this to any experienced craft beer drinker or a beer drinker looking to expand their drinking palate. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!