Cigar City Brewing Featurette March 10, 2010 3 comments	By Aaron

Florida is characterized by beer distributors and wholesalers as ‘a light lager crowd’, or a major-brand-preferring consumer base, much the same as the general beer-drinking populace of North America. Although a ‘light lager’ is just the sort of brew meant to be enjoyed while lazing on the beach or pounding em back at a college party, what are Floridian beer snobs expected to do? There are many reasons for this barren beer landscape: Florida has a heterogenous mixture of transplant residents with no strong preference for any particular variant of tasty brew, it has the general lack of unique local restaurant chains that could be tempted to serve craft brews (Outback steakhouse and Hooter’s both started in the Tampa Bay area), and a dearth of local craft brewers. Luckily for Floridians, that last driver for the formation of a ‘light lager crowd’ is beginning to fall apart. Craft breweries are starting up all across the sunshine state (there’s a list at the bottom!), and some are producing downright sensational products. One in particular, Cigar City Brewing, is stepping up to the Craft Brew microphone and making a lot of noise.

Cigar City was founded in 2007 by Tampa beermeister Joey Redner. In three short years, Cigar City has gone from ‘Isn’t that brewed in Ybor City?’ to ‘Dude, I love the Jai Alai!’. (Jai Alai is a devious IPA brewed with a staggering assortment of hops… it comes at your tongue with a distinctly bitter citrus bouquet and an affirming alcohol bite). The brewery and tasting room is tucked away on Spruce Street just a stone’s throw from Tampa’s notorious Dale Mabry Strip Clubs. I was in attendance Friday night as they christened their new tasting room/bar, and it was raucous. Taps were changing every fifteen minutes, and local beer lovers got to sample some unique offerings from Cigar City, including an 11% monster of a collaboration with the Bruery, an Orange County CA craft titan. Speaking of collaborations, Cigar City has recently had visits from some notorious brewers, namely Larry Bell from Bell’s Brewing and some of the fine folks from Lagunitas. Their experimentation has spawned some unbelievable suds.

So here come the beers you absolutely have to check out (if you can get your hands on them):

1. Oatmeal Raisin Stout: This is the most unbelievably tasty brew I have ever had, no exaggeration. It tastes exactly like a liquid oatmeal raisin cookie. Sweet, dark, toasty, and with the overwhelming aroma of fresh raisins, this is liquid crack. Worse than liquid crack. Like break-in-in-the-middle-of-the-night-and-steal-a-keg good. Made only in five gallon batches, this is truly something special.

2. Humidor Series IPA: The humidor series of brews is aged with cedar in an attempt to give the brews a crisp, spicy finish, not unlike a good cigar. Mission accomplished. This is almost like drinking a bloody mary… pepper is the driving flavor with rich, aromatic grapefruit and currant tones. You have never had anything like this, I can assure you. I wanted to put olives into it.

3. Double Cream Stout: Nice and strong, this is the definition of a goblet beer. Fine latte-like head, it’s got the taste of a good Belgian and the body of delicious motor oil. There is also a humidor series cream stout, if you think you could handle that.

If you can’t make it into the tasting room for an extended session, Cigar City also is innovating a concept new to Floridians but already going strong in places like Western New York: Growlers. Growlers are 128+ ounce jugs that are filled straight from the tap, with the intent that you are to enjoy the local brew in the safety of your own home. Fill ups are 18 bucks or so, and the initial purchase of the growler is a measly six bucks. You can also use the jug to blow into and make that cool sound you’ve always wanted in that cool band you’re in. (Fun Trivia! Growlers are called such because in olden times, people would bring buckets directly to the brewery, where the beer men would fill up the vessels with still-fermenting beer which would bubble and growl as the patrons took them home.)

Other cool links to Florida Brewers:
Florida Brewer’s Guild – Statewide Super-Team
Dunedin Brewery – Dunedin
Charlie and Jakes – Melbourne
Tampa Bay Brewing – Tampa
Seven Bridges – Jacksonville
McGuire’s Pub – Pensacola (beware obnoxious music)
Bold City Brewery – Jacksonville
Swamp Head Brewery – Gainesville
Florida Beer Company – Melbourne (conglomerate of microbrews)
Brewzzi – Boca Raton
Big Bear Brewing – Coral Springs

Tags: Beer brewing cigar city Florida growlers tampa