Before Canvitational, Get to know - Cigar City Brewing

We are getting excited for the upcoming Canvitational event happening next month.  The lineup is very impressive again this year with Canvitational the only place you can get many of these beers due to their distribution. We wanted to get to know each of the participating breweries a little bit better. So, we've sent out a six pack questionnaire to each of them and we wanted to share them with you.

Cigar City Brewing is a well known name in the craft beer community.  They have been making a name for themselves with hoppy IPAs, big imperial stouts, and other approachable beers for beer geeks and novices alike. Their offerings include eight year round beers and multiple special release beers along with seasonal beers. Look for them and the following beers at Canvitational:

Jai Alai (don't miss this one)- A big citrus and floral noted IPA
 Florida Cracker – A Belgian Style Wit
 Invasion - A 5% pale ale that punches well above its weight

Next in our series is Joe Burns, National Sales Manager at Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, Florida.


1. What music is usually playing on the brew deck? 

Depends on the brewer. We have two brew houses on site and the music in Brew House 1 varies by the day of the week, old rock, jazz, blues, with a culmination of Django Reinhart Friday. Its like clockwork with Brew House 1.

 2. What's your brewing mission? What are you trying to accomplish with your beer?

We are trying to highlight the Tampa culture and the Cuban culture of the area. Florida is very diverse and we want to show folks names, tastes, and the history of our area.

 3. How many beards can be found in the brewery on any given day?

 We have 65 employees, and we are mostly beardless. I just looked at our wall of employee pictures, and would say that we have about 20 guys with some type of facial hair.

 4. Which beers outside of your own do you enjoy? What beer do you wish you came up with? Why?

 The folks here are the brewery have very diverse pallets. We all seem to love sours, and hoppy pale ales. I am personally a big Bells fan, with the Amber being one of my favorites.

 5. What's your go-to shift beer after a long day brewing?

 The beer of choice around here is Invasion Pale Ale. Light bodied, hop forward, low ABV.

 6. Is there anything else you would like us to know about you and/or your company?

 We are constantly asked to ship beer out of Florida. Truth is we sell very little beer outside of Florida, as 94+% of the beer that we produce is sold in Florida. We are very involved in the legislative side of the business and continue to try to get others as involved as we are. The brewery has 6 full time reps in Florida, two in the Tampa/St Pete/Sarasota/Ft Myers/Naples market, two in the Miami/Ft Lauderdale/Keys markets, one in Orlando/Gainsville, and one in Jacksonville/Tallahassee market. We work very hard to align ourselves with Florida institutions who do a great job of selling and marketing our products. A few examples are, Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays), Disney properties, Epcot Food and Wine, Epcot Flower and Garden Fest, Carnival Cruise Lines, Publix Supermarkets, ABC Liquors, Sloppy Joe's (Key West), Tampa Int'l Airport, to name a few. Cigar City Brewing has a brew pub located 10 miles away from the brewery which is a full service restaurant with a small 7 bbl system in it. We have the only operating/manufacturing brewery inside of an airport in the US. It is located in Concourse C (Southwest Airlines/Airtran Airlines) with a small 2 bbl system. Cigar City Cider is about to go into full production in the month of August. It will be available in cans and draft, just as our beers are. Cigar City Brewing has a great team that really believes in what we are doing.

What is Canvitational?


The 2nd Annual Sun King CANvitational will take place in the heart of Midwest – Indianapolis, IN. Located on Georgia Street, known for Super Bowl XLVI festivities and Pan Am Plaza, the CANvitational is set to showcase 40+ craft breweries from all over America who CAN.

 On Saturday, September 20th, 2014, the 2nd Annual CANvitational will enlighten patrons to sampling craft beer from award winning breweries from across the USA, enjoy local eats provided by local food trucks and music that will be sure to get you dancing in the streets, in an urban downtown atmosphere. Tickets are available and the event will feature some familiar breweries, as well as many out of state. You can find more information about them and the event at http://canvitational.com/.

Tickets are available here.  There is a $20 discount for tickets purchased before Septermber 1st.

I'm not from here: Beer from outside Indiana

You might question the relevance of writing about beer from outside Indiana on "A Beer Blog for Indiana, from Indianapolis" - it's a topic of discussion in my household from time to time¹. Nevertheless, we pick up a lot of beer from other states on our travels here and there, and we know that many of our readers do the same. Here are a few things to keep an eye out for if you find yourself in a liquor store outside of Indiana's state lines.

Brasserie de Cazeua Saison Cazeau Part of the impetus of writing this comes from the lack of variety in my beer diet - while Indiana's brewers continue to work American styles, the old world styles that brought me to craft beer are not as prevalent as I'd hope for. Saison is nowhere near my favorite style, but variety is what I crave.


Brasserie de Cazeau is one of those old world breweries that has very little reputation in the United States. With just a smattering of reviews on the traditional beer review sites, it's hard to say if Brasserie de Cazeus is in any way popular in Belgium, I'm fond of the idea of drinking something from a tiny family brewery in the middle of nowhere. Is the Hainaut Province of Belgium the middle of nowhere? Is the brewery family owned? I can't be sure. But the farm has been brewing (with a few breaks) since 1753, and that's enough history to pique my interest.

Saizon Cazeau pours a hazy lemon color, with a thin yet pillowy head that leaves a slight lacing on the glass. Flowery hops prevail throughout, never dominating, but galloping through in a refreshing romp across the palate. A slightly tart bite remains and rewards².

If you're a fan of the style, or just like a nice refreshing summer-time beer, this is one worth seeking out.

Stillwater Artisanal Ales Stateside Saison - Here's a brewery I knew very little about before picking up the bottle. What I knew was that the bottle art was eye-catching, and that I hadn't seen it on shelves in Indiana.

As it turns out, Stillwater is the brewery of gypsy brewer Brian Strumke. If you're not familiar with the term, gypsy brewers move from brewery to brewery, in many cases renting out facilities in order to create their latest brews. If you're familiar with (now gone from Indiana) Mikkeller, the idea is the same. Like Mikkel, Brian doesn't own a brewery, he finds available brewery spaces and makes them his own temporarily.


Stateside Saison was our second saison of the evening, with a similar color as the first, but with a thicker head and heavier lacing. Once sniff at the glass let us know we were in for something different, with huge overripe pineapple notes, in addition to elements of peppercorn. Dipping in brought out a surprise of earthy malt, a slight note of alcohol, and a warming and drying mouthfeel. The burp brought pineapple back.

Something in this beer reminded me of Upland's Dragonfly, but I had no Dragonfly bottle to figure out what.

De Scheldebrouwerij Hop Ruiter - Bonus! Here's a beer you can actually get in Indiana - I've seen it on shelves at Goose the Market, for example. When you combine Belgian breweries with the word "Hop", there's a good chance you're in for something interesting.


Hop Ruiter doesn't disappoint, with a nose that screams out "cheese!" and followed by the sweet fruit flavors one might expect with a Belgian golden ale. Candy! Honey! Magic! A hint of orange! The weird thing here is the ever-looming cheese element in the nose, almost demanding a cheese to accompany. This one's a sipper, not because of the 8% ABV, but because of the rich flavors that come through.

Perhaps a future Hoosier Beer Geek Goose the Market Cheese Club pairing candidate? Cheese beer! Anyone paying attention? Everyone wins.

Cigar City Brewing Jose Marti Porter Aged on French Oak Spirals was our last beer of the night, and the one I anticipated most. Tampa, Florida's Cigar City is currently the shit-hot brewery amongst beer geeks, putting nearly everything into all types of barrels, aging them on anything and everything tasty, and unleashing flavors that are completely new to even the oldest of beer geek.


Jose Marti Porter has a nose that jumped out at me before I even sat down at the table. "Is that the beer?" I asked, smelling cigarette smoke. But with my nose in the beer, the prevailing elements reminded me of Dogfish Head's Palo Santo - tar, licorice, and charred meats, with a hint of rubber. Are those elements that seem rewarding?

It's a dry beer, reminiscent of my idea of cigars (which I haven't touched since I quit smoking forever ago) - after warming a bit, hints of cherry and chocolate come out - but this isn't your typical porter, or even your typical oak aged beer. It's something different. One our guests loved the beer, while the rest of us were appreciative but not exactly in love. If you're a fan of Palo Santo, this one might be up your alley.

* * * * *

¹ I hope your household is this exciting.

² I'm not sure where the horse-related metaphors came from. I'm embarrassed by the paragraph.

Beer Diary: Rod and Jess | Craft Beer in South Florida

Jess and I took a much needed tropical vacation to Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding Gold Coast region.  Not content to settle for Yuengling, we quickly began researching our craft beer options.  Turns out, Florida's craft beer selection is fairly similar to Indiana's, with a few notable exceptions.  Exceptions like Cigar City, Oskar Blues and Holy Mackerel.  Here's a brief rundown of some of the beers we drank and places we visited.

Holy Mackerel
Before we left, we found a nice beer event calendar at the South Florida Beer Blog, thanks to Google.  It indicated that we would be arriving in Fort Lauderdale on the same day that a Holy Mackerel "keep the glass" style tapping was going on at Hurricane Grill and Wings (like BW3 but with way more sauces) up in Boca Raton.  Not only was their Special Golden Ale being tapped, but it was also 25 cent wing night!  Double bonus!  The Golden Ale was an incredibly smooth Belgian golden ale, sweet but not cloying or heavy.  At 8.5% ABV it was strong but not boozy.  Holy Mackerel only does Belgian style beers, and as of this year they have 3 beers in their line up (up from 2).  We had a second Golden Ale and on our way out the head brewer told us to check out the tap handles on the side of his car - and we did.

Cigar City
Our adventures brought us to one beer superstore in Fort Lauderdale - Total Wine and More.  Our number one goal here was clear and that was to obtain Cigar City beers.  We picked up a 750 mL of Guava Grove and Big Sound.  Guava Grove is a saison, flavored with one of Florida's favorite fruits.  The guava gave it a nice sweetness not easily reproduced in any other manner.  Banana and strawberry were present against the spicy wheat-like background.  A bit of tartness rounded out this beer and kept it from being too sweet.  This was exactly the kind of unique offering we were looking for.

Big Sound is quite literally the Imperial Stout of Scotch Ales.  Nothing could have prepared us for how heavy and thick this beer was.  Tons of toffee, brown sugar and vanilla in the nose.  It even looked thick pouring in to the glass.  If you can imagine every flavor you expect out of a scotch ale times ten, this is it.  Caramel, toffee, vanilla, molasses, chocolate, brown sugar and even some peat.  Very strong and sweet.  While we both quite enjoyed this beer, it's one to share.  10 oz would probably be enough.

Original Fat Cats
I wish this place had a website.  We almost didn't go just because we couldn't find much info online other than it's THE craft beer bar in Fort Lauderdale.  I'll do my best to do it justice.  This place is a dive in the best sense of the word.  Walls covered in stickers and skateboards.  An old beat up solid wood bar and huge window/door openings that made the entire front end of the bar open up to the street.  Dogs are allowed (I can't stress how awesome this is).  Blues on the jukebox.  Don, the resident craft beer champion, works during the day when the regulars are in and will talk with you about anything.  Super friendly guy.  Over the past 10+ years he has been slowly converting the beer selection into craft.  Starting out with only a few bottles, they're now up to 75 beers, of which 2/3 are craft and hand picked.  Just about everything on tap is craft.  And if that's not enough, most beers are $1 off during Happy Hour and if you come in before 10PM you get that discount all night (even if you leave and come back).  The downtown area they are located in even allows you to drink in the streets, even though that does carry the additional requirement of plastic cups.  This was by far our favorite bar in South Florida.

I started off with a Shipyard XXXX IPA (on tap) and Jess had a custom creation called Dogmilk (half Dogfish Head 90 Minute and half Left Hand Milk Stout).  The Shipyard was great but the Dogmilk was even better.  Someone in Indy should start making this.  In fact, try it out at home, you won't be sorry.  I followed this up with a Cigar City Maduro Brown, which is an awesome brown.  The body is as heavy as a thick oatmeal stout, and the flavor is somewhere between brown and stout with strong roasted notes, a heavy nuttiness, balanced sweetness and even a hint of coffee.  I had another when we came back later that evening. 

Tryst
We hit up Tryst in Delray Beach on Yelp and Beer Advocate's recommendation.  This was probably the only true gastropub we stopped by.  The food was excellent, and Happy Hour prices were even better.  Jess had some great fish tacos and I enjoyed a huge bowl of pad thai.  On tap, we enjoyed our fourth, and final, Cigar City beer; Jai Alai IPA.  This beer was a solid, well-balanced IPA.  Great with both our dinners.  We couldn't bring ourselves to buy the $75 bottle of Cigar City Hunahpu.

Brother Tucker's
On the way out of Delray Beach, we stopped at Brother Tucker's in Pompano Beach.  I'm going to take a break and not talk about the beers we ordered.  Brother Tucker's offered a really cool and unique experience.  The place is located in a tiny strip mall and is as small as the smallest strip mall bar you can imagine in Indiana.  Located in side this tiny bar is food renowned across the region.  Originally recommended by Don at Original Fat Cat's and the guys at Beer Advocate, the daily soup is made with locally sourced ingredients and will never steer you wrong.  By offering up this great food, Brother Tucker's is turning on the most unexpected crowd to Belgian and craft beers.  A small tap list of only 4 beers and a lengthy bottle list are the predominate beverages here.  The tables were mostly full of people you wouldn't expect to see drinking craft beer, and yet everyone, men and women, were drinking great selections.  I personally had an Aventinus on tap, served in an official Aventinus glass, and Jess had a Norwegian porter we had never heard of.  But the most important thing going on here is that Brother Tucker's has made craft beer acceptable and enjoyable to people who would never have tried it otherwise.  This, in itself, is an amazing feat.

Dogfish Head
We picked up a bottle of My Antonia from Total Wine, who is supposedly the only retailer in the area that carries this beer.  This beer is billed as a continually hopped Imperial Pilsner, and certainly lives up to that title.  Through the continuous hopping (the same process their IPAs undergo), strong mint, citrus and bitter notes give this beer a much more bold flavor than you would expect from a pilsner.  The light pilsner body gains a lot of flavor from an increased malt bill, which helps it stand up against the huge hop presence.  This was a very enjoyable beer, even though it was a bit too strong for the fish I tried to pair it with.

Lagunitas
Lagunitas 13 was another beer we picked up on our beer run.  13 is a "mondo large red ale" and is one of those beers that ends up exactly like you think it will.  A huge, malty red body completely masks any alcohol present with its caramel and cherry sweetness.  Massive hops push this thing into IPA range, making the end result similar to a red double IPA.  The kind of beer you'd expect from Lagunitas, and that's a good thing.

St. Somewhere
Ok, this is it.  This is the last beer that we're going to cover and it's ending our trip on a sour note.  Quite literally.  I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the St. Somewhere Saison Athene smells like lemon juice.  Literally, like lemon juice.  And it's not just the aroma that carries that acidic citric bite, the beer tastes like someone spiked it with lemon juice as well.  You can trust me on this because I literally drink straight lemon juice.  I tried to push past this and enjoy the apple and black pepper spiciness, but it was difficult.  Jess couldn't manage past the lemon juice character and I had to finish hers.  I struggled, but managed to avoid a drain pour.  There is just simply too much lemon juice in this beer.

I hope this overview helps overcome any assumptions that Florida has a crappy craft beer market.  We had pretty low expectations but the market is actually a blossoming one.  We spent a week in Florida and tried a lot more beers (a crapload of Oskar Blues, for example) and visited a lot more establishments than we covered here, but the article is already long enough.  We were more than happy with the variety of craft beer we experienced along with our relaxing, tropical vacation.

Beer Diary #18 - Jim | So To You Other Kids All Across The Land

Date: 30 June 2010
Location: South Street City Oven & Grill
Naples, Florida

In South Florida on business. To be precise, my wife and I are staying at the Marriott Beach Resort on Marco Island, where I'm participating in a professional conference. In my limited experience of this part of the state, there's little to offer when it comes to craft beer. The best that the resort has is Samuel Adams (which is actually one of my favorite lagers, but I'll save my paean to Jim Koch's creation for another time).

We decide to head north to Naples for dinner and maybe a beer or two. After doing a little hunting, we find South Street City Oven & Grill with the assurance that Tampa's vaunted Cigar City beers will be on tap.


South Street turns out to be a pizzeria that looks like it was decorated circa 1987--lots of neon coloring; exposed brick walls with bright graffiti straight out of a DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince video; and lithographs of '80s rock icons such as Billy Idol and Morrissey. There's a Philly connection to the place as well, as evidenced by the name of the establishment (South Street is a well-known drag in Philadelphia) and the Eagles flag hanging from the ceiling.

We have a seat at the bar and take a look at the menu. There appear to be about two dozen taps, which include three Victory Brewing Company selections (HopDevil among them), Smuttynose Old Brown Dog, Magic Hat #9, Southern Tier IPA, and Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale.


Looking for a local offering, I go for the Maduro Brown. Upon sampling a whiff of this beer, I can immediately tell that this is not your garden-variety American Brown Ale. The nose is heavy on the coffee and chocolate notes, with just a touch of oak perhaps (though I'm pretty sure that the beer is not barrel-aged, so my nose might be deceiving me). It's got a pillowy, creamy head on it with a dark brown body that carries a faint reddish tint. The mouthfeel is a bit thick for the style, and the beer is very malty, with coffee, chocolate, molasses, and a bit of brandy dominating the flavor profile. If you served this to me while I was blindfolded, I could almost swear that I was drinking a Founders Porter because Maduro Brown is just as dark, rich, and sexy as Founders Porter. It's certainly a beer that I wish were readily available back home.