Oh, come on. You know Jack. Jaaack.
He’s the weasel depicted on the tap handles and artwork of Tampa Bay Brewing Company’s award-winning London porter — the dark, rich beer that was first brewed at The Brew Shack, the homebrew shop precursor to TBBC, back in ’93. Jack, whose enigmatic appearance is part of his mystique, is known for his signature trench coat and pimp hat.
I’m sure you’d remember him if you saw him.
As managing partner David Doble tells it, Jack the Quaffer’s name is purposefully close to Jack the Ripper, but rather than murder, the vice of choice for this creature of the night is craft beer. And he downs lots of it.
Errr, well… he did — before he went missing in the summer of 2014, that is.
“We’re pretty sure one of our brewers, Doug Clark, killed him,” Doble said.
TBBC Director of Community Engagement Mike Dyer added: “Doug lives in Ybor, and we think he had it out for Jack.”
The weasel went curiously MIA when lead brewer Clark started playing around with his original recipe and a different yeast was added to create Full Moon Madness, Jack’s “replacement.” Full Moon Madness is an American porter Doble calls “just awesome,” but even he and the rest of the TBBC crew were sort of shocked by the amount of folks upset over Jack’s disappearance.
In hopes of finding the little guy, the Tampa brewery has been posting “MISSING” fliers, mostly within close proximity of its Centro Ybor brewpub, since last week.
“If [you have] seen or have any information on his whereabouts,” the posters read, “please contact Tampa Bay Brewing Co. immediately.”
The good news is that — despite the rumors of his death — Jack is alive, and he’s ready to return to the draft lines of both TBBC locations in Ybor City and Westchase, starting Sept. 9, a homecoming that should provide some much-needed closure to the customers who routinely ask for Jack the Quaffer in person. Occasional social media and email requests from fans come through, too. Simply put — people love him.
That being said, his whereabouts over the past three years are anybody’s guess.
He’s a mysterious fella, after all.
According to Dyer, TBBC expects Clark and Jack to reconcile, though Jack is still upset about his attempted murder (rightfully so). Not to mention, despite Jack’s plan to stick around for the foreseeable future, there is one small problem.
“Jack doesn’t like to share the limelight with anyone and therefore could call for the ouster of his ‘replacement,’” Dyer said, referring to Full Moon Madness.
Only time will tell, I guess.
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 7, 2017.