The recent drama between Cigar City Brewing and the Tampa City Council over the fate of the tasting room at the brewery has made for good theater and has been fodder for articles nationwide. The thriving local business pitted against the narrow-sighted and unwilling to listen “nay” voters on the council was an eye-opening experience in local politics. But at the end of the day, it is about the tasting room at Cigar City and that is where some really great things are happening. While many of Cigar City’s beers are available in bottles around town, certain offerings can only be had on tap, and finding a place that has them can prove difficult. Luckily, there is always an opportunity to try something special at the CCB tasting room.
A while back Cigar City acquired a small 45-gallon (just shy of 1 /12 barrel) pilot system. Their goal was to use this smaller system to create test batches and interesting one-offs exclusively for the Tasting Room and select accounts. (Yet another reason to visit the tasting room frequently!) The system can brew roughly 5.17 gallons worth of beer per batch. They also have one 41-gallon and two 80-gallon fermenters for the system. What this means is that they can have just over 186 gallons (6 barrels) of brew going at any one time. Not really a lot if you consider distribution, but as a method to enhance the usual offerings with interesting one-offs and as a way to test potential larger scale batches, it’s a good little system.
The problem was, however, that they had no one who could dedicate the time to use it. Head brewer Wayne Wambles and brewers Tim Ogden and Doug Dozark were all swamped on the production side just to keep up with demand and didn’t have time for extracurricular small batch duties. Enter Ben Romano. Tampa Bay beer geeks know Ben from Southern Brew Supply and from his ongoing work to launch Zen Brewing. Ben was brought in to take on small batch duties. By and large, the majority of his experiments will be available exclusively in the tasting room. One of his first efforts was to bring a session beer to the Cigar City stable of typically stronger, bigger beers.
The El Lector English Mild Ale is a truly “sessionable” beer, coming in at only 4% ABV, but don't let that fool you. There are some amazing flavors going on here. It has a murky, dark amber body with big, bubbly white head. The mild aroma pulls up some roasty malts, a bit of black strap molasses and some spicy to earthy hops. The taste has pretty solid roasted malts to chocolate malt notes for such a small beer. Those notes are followed by modest burnt malts, growing earthiness and then sliding into spicy hops. It is a smooth-drinking brew, and one you can have several of without going overboard.
Tocobaga Ale is a deeply colored red ale at 7.4% ABV with hoppy flavor and aromas, and a subtle caramel malt sweetness to balance the finish. Currently only available on draft, it is quickly becoming a favorite, not only of regulars to the tasting room, but of the brewery staff as well. Tocobaga pours a slightly hazy reddish-amber color with an off-white head and great lacing. The aroma is amazing: hoppy and citrusy with tropical fruit notes like pineapple and hints of sweet caramel malt. For a red ale, there is a surprising and delicious hop bitterness one would associate more with a West Coast IPA. I am not usually a big fan of red ales in general, but this is one is exceptionally good. This beer is reason enough to visit the tasting room
You never know what you may find when you come in to the Cigar City tasting room, but you can always count on the excellent beer and friendly people.
3924 West Spruce St. Suite A, Tampa. 813-348-6363, cigarcitybrewing.com.
Top photo: Amie Mizell, bottm photo: Sean Nordquist
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.