Cigar City "BIG SOUND SCOTCH ALE"

Today I decided to head over to Tampa and visit CIGAR CITY BREWERY.  After getting in stuck in traffic in Tampa and it taking me 30 minutes longer to get there then it should have. I promptly drove right past the place. I turned around and pulled into the parking lot. It is very easy to miss, it's a very small place. I had visited their website (see link above) and decided to go check out their "Tasting Room" which is basically a bar in the room next to the brewery. I wasn't expecting it to actually look like a bar but to my amazement it did. The bartender Mary was very easy on the eyes and they had a good selection of music playing from what I'm gathering was Mary's iPod docked in a player on the shelve. They have a menu of beers that you can choose from, probably a total of 12-15 different kinds. All Cigar City beers, of course. I had a pint of Jai Alai IPA as I was mulling over the menu trying to decide what to bring home. I bought two but all I'm concerned with right now is this one...

Price: 9.00 for a 750mL bottle

ABV: 8.50%

IBU: 30

I has absolutely no idea what to expect from this beer. I kinda read the description on the menu but it wasn't very helpful. It said something about it being a SCOTCH ALE and something about a 'Malt bomb' with 'cherry and toffee'. Let me tell you right now, if there is any cherries in this beer they are well hidden. Once I poured it into my glass my heart sank...

  

I am NOT a fan of dark beers. Every one I have ever had tasted and felt like I was drink tar. Even as I was pouring it I was almost dreading the first taste. It poured very thick appearing and had a dark color of maple syrup. The head was a caramel color and dissipated relatively quick.
Remember when you were a kid and your parents made you take cough syrup? That feeling in your stomach that you knew you were about to put something into your mouth that you were not going to enjoy? I had that exact feeling as I was about to take my first taste of this beer.
To my amazement I was pleasantly surprised when my taste buds didn't get the overwhelming sensation of cool black tar but a very interesting mixture of some kind of chocolate (probably that toffee I spoke of earlier) and maybe brown sugar. There is for sure a beer taste there, it's not hoppy like an IPA, but you can definitely taste the beer. The other stuff is there but it's taken me almost an entire bottle to try and place it.
Overall I enjoyed this one. I'm not sure if it'll end up on my personal favorites list but if I was out somewhere and they had this on tap I might have a glass.
After doing some research on this beer I found out that it took the gold at the US OPEN BEER CHAMPIONSHIPS  so congrats to them.
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Till next time... (which will be Thursday)