CIGAR CITY BREWING

In 2007, Tampa native Joey Redner had a dream; he wanted to bring the unique culture, history, and cuisine of Tampa to an international audience. As a result, Redner founded Cigar City Brewing to realise his dream while also paying homage to the cigar industry that helped Tampa to become what it is today. After putting its refreshingly unique drinks out into the world, Cigar City started to gain recognition and quickly became a highly-respected craft brewery in Tampa and beyond.

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Cigar City Brewing was founded by Tampa native and fifth-generation Floridian Joey Redner in 2007, who had an honourable vision to bring the unique culture, history, and cuisine of Tampa to the world. As Redner wanted to pay homage to the cigar industry upon which Tampa was built, he decided to reflect that in the name of his new brewery and thus, Cigar City Brewing was born.

After selecting a location for his new brewery on Spruce Street, Redner began developing the space in early 2008 while searching for the perfect brewmaster who can realise his dreams.

Intro to City Cigar Brewing

Redner was lucky to meet Brewmaster Wayne Wambles, an Alabama native with an extensive brewing experience that dated back to the 1990s. The two wanted to create a beer that represented the roots of Ybor City, the cigar capital of the world, and also wanted to demonstrate how the taste and packaging of the can are able to evoke the cigar-rolling industry. As such, Cigar City Brewing’s first commercial batch of beers was a 465 gallon batch of Maduro Brown Ale - its name a homage to Maduro-wrapped cigars.

Redner and Wambles were the perfect duo; both of them were focused on creating beers that drew inspiration from unique tropical flavours as well as from various culinary lineages. The result was impressive beers like Jai Alai IPA, Cubano Espresso Brown Ale, and Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout. These creative and ambitious beers were extremely well-received not only in Tampa, but also garnered a lot of attention from the national and international craft beer communities!

Expanding on Cigar City Brewing’s beers

Cigar City’s most popular beer would perhaps be the Jai Alai IPA, though there are a few other fierce contenders. The hop-forward IPA showcases a combination of citrusy and tropical hop flavours that result from the generous usage of 6 different hop varieties.

The ale is named after the popular game Jai Alai, which is native to the Basque region of Spain and is rather popular in Florida. In Jai Alai, players would launch a ball from a cesta - a curved mitt - in an attempt to outsmart and outmanoeuvre their opponents on the court. Though the popularity of the game is slowly declining, City Cigar wants to pay homage to those who continue to keep this Florida tradition alive with its deliciously refreshing IPA.

Another popular beer of City Cigar is its Maduro Brown Ale, which was inspired by one of the darkest coloured and most complex cigars made in Tampa’s Ybor City - the maduro. The wrapper boasts chocolaty and earthy flavours, which is what Cigar City attempts to recreate in the brown ale. The Maduro Brown Ale has chocolate and espresso notes that are rounded out by hints of toffee and a light, woody hop presence.

Cigar City Brewing today and beyond

In 2017, Cigar City Brewing partnered with The Brandit - a craft beer branding agency - to revamp its logo. The result is a much cleaner-looking logo that still retains the colours of Ybor - Rich Tobacco Brown, Aged Brick Red and Antique Parchment.

In addition to its logo, Cigar City also redesigned its beer packaging. The idea was to create unique line drawings that contained subtle allusions to both the beer and the piece of Tampa culture that the beer’s name references. For example, Cigar City’s flagship beer, Jai Alai, features an illustration of hops and figures playing the traditional game on the can.

Despite being a relatively young brewery, Cigar City Brewing was able to promptly make a name for itself and compete against other established breweries. In fact, Cigar City is the fastest-growing top craft brewery in the country, as shown in a report in 2018. The brewery has also clinched multiple awards at the Great American Beer Festival, the Best Florida Beer Competition, and the US Beer Tasting Championships.

In 2022, Cigar City Brewing’s parent company, CANarchy Craft Brewing Collective, was sold to Monster Beverage. However, according to a press release on the Monster Energy website, CANarchy will still be functioning independently, which means that Cigar City will continue as it is, except with more financial backing. This means that the brewery will have more financial freedom to experiment with new flavours while ensuring that the quality of its beers is top-notch.

Cigar City Brewing’s story is truly awe-inspiring; from a small two-man operation in a simple warehouse on Spruce Street, the brewery has grown to include over 60 full-time staff managing its affairs. The overwhelmingly successful brewery now has reach in more than 40 states in the US and also in more than a dozen international markets!