Cigar City Brewing

Jai‎ alai, a game native to the Basque region of Spain, is played on a court called a fronton. Jai alai players attempt to catch a ball using a curved mitt whilst the ball travels at speeds up to 188mph! proving they have a sense of humor the spanish dubbed this game, w/ its ball traveling at racecar speeds, “the merry game.” Tampa was once home to a bustling jai alai fronton but sadly all that remains of jai alai in the Tampa bay area is this india pale ale that we brew in tribute to the merry game. The india pale ale style of beer has its roots in the ales sent from england to thirsty British troops in india during the 18th century. Pair jai alai india pale ale w/ beef empanadas, deviled crabs & other spicy dishes

The tocobaga lived off the bounty of Tampa bay hundreds of years before the arrival of the spanish in the 1500’s. They were potters, tool makers & the only florida natives to grow maize. The large platform mounds they built are still w/ us today, w/ one of the largest found near old Tampa bay in safety harbor, florida. Climb to the top, & w/ a little imagination, you can see Tampa bay as they did

This rich brown ale is redolent w/ cuban-style roasted espresso beans, sweet caramel & toffee & hints of dry nuttiness. Cuban espresso is a popular drink in the cigar city of Tampa owing to its many sicilian & cuban immigrants. The beans for Cubano-style espresso brown ale are roasted locally by mazzaro's Italian market & deli in st. Petersburg to our exact specifications

This double nut brown ale is brewed in honor of the popular bolita games played in ybor city, fl. Bolita means little ball, but the profits from the often rigged games were anything but little. A player would pick a number & hope that his bolita came up, while the game operator would employ a variety of tricks to ensure it didn't. There are no tricks in this brew though, just a high gravity brown ale redolent w/ caramel & toffee like malts & a long nutty finish. Pars well w/ baklava, wild game & medium body cigars

What you have here is an oatmeal rye india-style brown ale. Now you might be thinking oatmeal, rye, brown ale, india-style; isn’t that a lot to be going on in just one beer? Well yes, it is. But that is the point. Layers. Flavor elements building on & playing off of preceding elements, like a building wave; a growing crescendum of taste bud temptation; a wall of sound expressed through flavor & channeled toward your mouth. This beer isn’t for everyone. In many ways it is more than just a little weird. It certainly doesn’t fit easily into any category. It isn’t a brown ale, not just a brown ale anyway. It certainly isn’t an IPA. Calling it a rye beer would be selling it way short. In the spirit of all great things that are conceived in the moment, but perfected through passionate repetition it started life as an improveisation & grew from there. And it might not be for you. But if the thought of big spicy rye notes, a wallop of a hop punch, multitudinous layers of caramel, sweet malt & a respectable balancing gravity sound intriguing then you might want to wing it & give improve a try.

Cigar city brewing's official celebration of Christmas. a rich-bodied brown ale forms the stage for holiday flavors which dance a festive ballet highlighted by pirouetting leaps of Christmas inspired spices. cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, rose hips & chamomile compliment the subtle chocolate & light coffee notes of the malt & the addition of roasted carob & chicory complete the performance. brewed once a year to celebrate the Christmas season. pair w/ fresh cracked nuts, fruit cake & share w/ friends & family. merry Christmas from the CCB family

This russian imperial stout is dedicated to Georgy zhukov, arguably one of the finest generals of world war ii. Opaque black in color, w/ notes of espresso, chocolate, dark toffee & hints of back strap molasses. The English hop varietals provide a subtle herbal dryness, & finishes w/ a hearty slap of roasty espresso. Pair marshal zhukov’s w/ mushroom solyanka, dark chocolate, cherries & ground wars in russia. We brew & release zhukov's in the summer knowing that a beer of this heft reaches its full potential a few months after release. So save a bottle for the cold winter

110k+ot is not for college pukes, white collar sissy boys or mamby-pamby nancy boys who haven’t done an honest days work in their lives. Nor is this beer for the common man. This beer is for the working man who has arrived. If your work boots are steel toed, come back when they are gold toed

Thanks to our name, the two questions we get asked the most are "do you guys sell cigars? " And "are you located in ybor city? " The answer to both questions is no. However, we still love cigars & we still love ybor city, which is why we created the humidor series. Each beer in the humidor series is aged on spanish cedar (cedrela) , the same wood used to make cigar boxes. The spanish cedar imparts notes of white pepper, sandalwood & other spices. Our flagship beer in the humidor series is humidor series india pale ale. We start w/ jai alai IPA as a base beer & add the cedar during secondary fermentation. The cedar provides a perfect balance w/ the assertive hops of jai alai to create an entirely new experience. We produce humidor series india pale ale year round, & keep an eye out for other humidor series beers in our tasting room & limited bottling runs.

In‎ Mayan myth, hunahpu gave cocoa to the Mayans.An imperial stout aged on cacao nibs, madagascar vanilla beans, ancho chilis, pasilla chilis & cinnamon. We celebrate the release of hunahpu's by hosting hunahpu's day the second weekend of every march. In addition to the release of hunahpu's we feature live music, food vendors, incredible guest taps & many of our own special beers for all to try as well. it's becoming a hell of an event, & promises to only get better

Pours black in color w/ coffee & very light cocoa notes. Hillsborough river is brewed w/ roasted barley which contributes forward coffee notes w/ small notes of cocoa & toffee in the flavor. An authentic dry irish stout.

A traditional schwarzbier, ligero pours brown to light black w/ notes of roasted coffee & nutty expressions. The flavor has elements of smoke w/ roasted espresso beans, sticky caramel-covered almonds & notes of dry dark chocolate in the finish. Our most easily quaffable dark beer yet

This saison pours hazy to clear straw in color w/ notes of honey & tropical fruit. Flavor has tropical fruit w/ a lemony bitterness & hints of clove in the finish. Sorachi ace & citra hops add lots of flavor to this small, sessionable beer

Dark in color w/ a ruby hue w/ forward notes of chocolate & caramel & light toffee notes in the aroma. Flavor has big notes of bittersweet chocolate w/ notes of caramel & toffee & moderate hop bitterness & more caramel & toffee & slight hints of char. A big take on a classic style.

This festive lager is our tribute to duke wilhelm iv's marriage hundreds of years ago, which inspired the production of the first oktoberfest. Malty up front w/ notes of sweet toasted bread & a light floral bitterness. Balanced, traditional & incredibly drinkable.

We often like to brew new beers on our 3bbl pilot system before transitioning to our larger 15bbl system. This gives us a lot of opportunities to test out the beer on a smaller scale to see if we should move forward w/ it on the big system. Stop by the tasting room & experiment for yourself.