Cigar City Brewing 110k + OT Batch #4

Cigar City Brewing 110k + OT Batch #4 is an Imperial Red Ale, bottled 05/05/2011. My original notes don’t indicate how old it was when I first tried it, but I ended up sitting on a second bottle of this for three years. Here are my impressions of that first tasting:

Intensely malty and sweet with lots of caramel and toffee, dried dark fruits, vanilla, and just enough hops on the finish to add a little balance. This is reminding me of an American Strong Ale like Stone Arrogant Bastard.

Assuming my tasting notes are accurate this has lost a good bit of that complexity in the past few years. The taste profile has narrowed to some slight apple (maybe a bit of souring from the aging) and mostly just sweet dark fruits after that. Although less complex I’d say this has aged fairly well though, it has now become a very smooth sipper!