25 Drinks: Great Stout, Creepy Mythology

December 19 brought us another rare Imperial Stout from Tampa's Cigar City Brewing. Hunahpu's is aged on cocoa nibs, ancho and pasilla chilies, cinnamon, and Madagascar vanilla beans. The idea is similar to Boulevard's 2015 Imperial Stout release (same peppers, spices, and methods), only instead of going with Aztec they based it on the story of the Mayan Hun Hunahpu. He was killed by the Dark Lords of the underworld and his corpse was turned into a cacao tree. YUM! This brew is released once a year in March. This bottle is the 2013 release.

This brew was everything that you'd expect for a special release Imperial Stout. Rich and boozy with serious layers of complexity makes every sip something new. It was thick and coated the glass with syrupy goodness. The initial smell for me was dark fruit (dates), dark chocolate, and espresso. It had a caramel aroma, but the sweet flavor was more molasses. I didn't start getting the burn from the chilies and cinnamon until later on. As it sat in my glass I started getting a tobacco and spicy aroma. At the end, it was like enjoy a rich spiced chocolate.