This week, let’s discuss the best thing come out of Florida since . . . uh . . .  oranges!  Oranges are good, right?  Away we go to the land of STRONG BEER TAEKS.

NAME: Jai Alai India Pale Ale

SOURCE: Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL; the home of the runner-up Tampa Bay Lightning.  Let’s all give the Lighting a big round of applause for their strong showing in the NHL Playoffs.  I got them a little something, you know, for the effort.

TYPE: American India Pale Ale

REVIEW:  I went to Florida this year in the spring with my kids because Disney marketing is effective (Damn you to hell, you Hitler-loving sociopath), and the only redeemable thing about the state is this stuff.  My friend brought some back to Denver recently, and I had one last night while watching The Daily Show.  As an aside, if you want to see Jon Stewart’s speech about Charleston, just, you know, go to Facebook or Twitter.  Even your racist uncle posted it.  This IPA is good drinkin’.  It has a nice bright copper color, and tastes like all the good things in Florida, like grapefruit, melon, peach, orange and tangerine.  It is important to note here that fruit is all that is good in Florida.  Nothing else.*  Things that taste like all the bad things in Florida include La’el Collins’s asshole, an accidental sip out of someone’s dip cup, Bud Light Mixxxxxxxtails, and Grandma.

Anyway, Jai Alai finishes with a touch of caramel malt and pine-iness that cuts through the bitterness just about perfectly.  It is reasonably hoppy at 70 IBUs, and has a perfect alcohol content of 7.5% ABV for a strong American IPA.  It is easily in my top five IPAs, and ranks up there with the best of them, including Pliny and Odell.

The actual game of Jai Alai, on the other hand, involves Latino men throwing a hard little white ball, also known as a pelota, which is Spanish for “ball”, against a wall really, really fast using a gravy boat made out of straw.  Famous players include Joey Partido, Diego-Irastorza, Pizzoza, and Arriaga II.

GRADE:  A

*I feel bad.  I have a rule that places aren’t bad, just the people that inhabit them, and you can find something nice about any locale.  On that note, here are some additional good things about Florida: my friends I visited, that tasty Cuban style coffee in Miami, really nice beaches, really great fishing, all of the pythons taking over the Everglades, those bridges that connect the Keys, Sep, Sep’s coffee shop (presumably), Kate Upton’s boobs, this guy, and the fact that it takes in all of the left-over East Coast old people (glances at Horatio).

Programming Note: Since many of you are new, here are links to prior beer barrels:  Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4.  The Uinta one didn’t make it over to the new site.  I blame the St. Louis Cardinals.