Cee-gar on a steek!

[Kaisersozei]

Last Sunday afternoon I decided it was time to brew up my Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA clone. Since I was going to be busy for a long time with this beer, I figured a decent sized stogie would keep me company. Pulled out a CAO Gold that I bought from BengalMan back in May. Hadn’t intended to review this, but decided to throw something together since Top25 has been offline.

CAO Gold
Wrapper: Ecuador
Binder: Ecuador
Filler: Nicaragua
Vitola: Corona Gorda (6.5’X50)
Humi Time: ~ 2 ½ months @ 70deg/65% (probably older, though…)

Aesthetically impressive, as are most of the CAO line: smooth wrapper, no discolorations, only one minor vein, packed tightly with tobacco and no stems in the foot. Clipped cleanly & lit easily. Excellent construction, easy draw with lots of smoke from both ends with a surprisingly straight burn considering it was rather windy outside. The CAO website says “smooth buttery flavor laced with vanilla, cream and nutmeg.” I’ll give them the buttery flavor, and the finish did have hints of cream. But for the most part, this was a one-dimensional stick. Pleasant, but no complexity to speak of. No vanilla, no nutmeg. To its credit, it was an extremely consistent cigar: just toasty nuts from ignition to nub. Short finish, definitely mild in strength but rather medium in body.

Most of the cigar took about 1hr 45 minutes to smoke, but the beer was going to take a little while longer. I was getting bored with adding hops to the brew kettle, so I decided to see how far down I could smoke the nub. Had to improvise a bit and used a bamboo skewer to really get the job done:





Got that sucker down to under ¼” and you know what? The flavor never really changed! It was hot, of course, but never bitter and no off flavors.



Jeff Dunham’s friend José Jalapeño has got nothing on me!

This one was part of a larger sampler I bought, so it's hard to judge the value. CI has this size for about $4-5 ea, and that's a pretty good price point.

Appearance: 9
Construction: 9
Flavor: 8
Value: 8
Overall: 8
Nubbability [SIZE=1](with a steek)[/SIZE]: 10

[ca21455]

Thanks for the nice review and pics! Still on a diet but soon...

[elderboy02]

Nice review! I am a fan of the CAO Golds

[mugen910]

Nice!!! Not a fan of them but good to hear other reviews!

[skibumdc]

Dogfish 90 minute...mmmmmmm, such a good beer. We had 1/6 keg of it in my kegerator last year.
Kudos to you for your attempt at recreation.
I've only brewed twice before, Imperial Stout, and a Hophead Oktoberfest.
Very tasty.

Where in VA do you live?

[Kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by skibumdc

Dogfish 90 minute...mmmmmmm, such a good beer. We had 1/6 keg of it in my kegerator last year.
Kudos to you for your attempt at recreation.
I've only brewed twice before, Imperial Stout, and a Hophead Oktoberfest.
Very tasty.

Where in VA do you live?

Thanks--this was definitely the most complex beer I've ever brewed. It's sitting in the primary fermenter now, happily bubbling away! Supposed to transfer it this weekend when the recipe calls to dryhop with--get this--more than 2 oz of hops! It will be awhile before I can judge whether it's a true clone, or just a heavily-hopped wannabe!

I live just south of Richmond, work in the city.

[BirdDok]

OK... I'm curious about the paraphernalia in the background.... part of a still??