Cigar City now takes credit cards

I was in the Tampa area today and stopped by Cigar City Brewing to refill my two growlers with the world-class Jai Alai IPA, which I'm drinking right now.

They now take major credit cards, which is convenient and allows you to spend a lot more there than you planned.

Sebastien Jadot, Cigar City's Tampa area sales and events coordinator, was working there again and was very friendly and helpful. He answered all of my dumb questions and said if anyone is interested in brewery updates, including what they have on tap, e-mail him at sebastien@cigarcitybrewing.com and he will put you on a mailing list.

Sebastien says they are hoping to eventually produce more 750 mL bottles and are even trying to open up a bar next door, but that depends on approval from the city of Tampa, so don't hold your breath.

World of Beer first impressions

I stopped by the newly opened World of Beer on the border of Sarasota and Manatee counties after work on Friday night. I got there about 11:00. I only lasted five seconds.

The place was packed and they had a band playing in their loft with the sound set to concert levels. I turned on my heels and left. It's tough for a place to be more repellent than having smoking, but brain-breaking loud music is worse.

But I didn't want to give up on the place; after all, I went on a Friday night.

I went back on Tuesday evening and got there just before 7:00 to take advantage of their happy hour $1-off draft specials.

A good number of people were there, but there was still plenty of space. No bands, and the piped-in music was much softer than Friday night. It was a bit too loud for my tastes, but the sound wasn't in the danger level.*

I was welcomed by a server right after arriving and sat at the bar, where Josh tended to me. Nice guy. They were out of Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA, which was only a mild disappointment because I'm hoping to get up to the brewery on Wednesday. Josh suggested Hercules Double IPA, a great double IPA from Great Divide Brewing in Colorado, but the keg ran out. He then gave me a sample of Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA, another good, bitter beer. I had a glass of that, which was $5 with the happy hour special.

Some friends have called World of Beer a corporate place. I must be a corporate shill, because I liked it. Brick and dark wood with a wall of beer in coolers divided by about 30 taps. They have a covered lanai where patrons can smoke. It's connected to the bar by a big open doorway, so if you're really sensitive to smoke you'll need to keep clear.

This is a good bar. I will be returning to the World of Beer and suggest you check it out for yourself, just get their earlier when the music isn't so loud.

*I'm the guy who wears earplugs to concerts. My father had profound hearing loss and if the same thing happens to me, at least I'll know I didn't do it to myself.

Saint Somewhere in Food Network Magazine

Saint Somewhere Brewing is a little brewery in Tarpon Springs. They have been making two Belgian-style beers, Saison Athene and Lectio Divina, for a couple of years. The 750 mL bottles are about $10 each.

They are kind of a stealth brewery, making two good beers and keeping under the radar.

Their Saison Athene gets a mention in the November 2009 issue of Food Network Magazine. It's part of a neat little package, "Grape Escape" on page 43, on how great beers are a fraction of the cost of great wines.* They list 12 craft beers and how they can be substituted for wine.

Saison Athene is listed under "Instead of red wine." They write:

Made in Tarpon Springs, FL, this gently spiced beer is brewed with rosemary, black peppercorns and chamomile. Like zinfandel or syrah, it's a terrific match for lamb.

I've had this beer. It pours a very bright golden color with substantial bubbles and a very white head that reduces to a fairly thin ring in my tulip glass. It smells of spices, particularly coriander and orange peel. The taste is equally spicy, with big coriander flavors and notes of musty and earthy flavors. The body is quite light and crisp. This beer is well-attenuated.

I prefer Saint Somewhere's Lectio Divina, which has an earthy aroma with notes of grape and other fruit and has a pure Belgian fruity, earthy and yeasty taste. Grape flavors mix with hay and grass-like notes. It totally nails the Belgian style, better than almost any other American brewery.

*Dogfish Head's chief, Sam Calagione, has said that you can buy a six-pack of the best beers in the world for less than $20, while buying a bottle of the best wine will cost well over $100. And Brooklyn's brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, has even written a book, "The Brewmaster's Table," about pairing food and beer and has said that beer is more versatile than wine. I agree with both of them.

World of Beer opens, and I miss it

Wouldn't you know it, I leave town for a few days and World of Beer opens their newest beer bar on University Parkway on the Manatee-Sarasota county line.

I hear they planned on a "soft" invite-only opening but the word got out and lots of people showed up. I'm not sure if they have had the official grand opening cookout they promised on Twitter, but their Web site is fully operational.

I'll have to get over there ASAP and file a report.

Expanded "Kings of beer" story now online

My newspaper's sister site, yoursarasota.com, has posted an expanded online version of the "Kings of beer" story that ran last week in the Herald-Tribune and featured the Cock & Bull Pub and the Sarasota Brewing Co.* This version includes more of Chip Litherland's great photos.

You can read it here.

*Read my blog post on the article here.

Review: Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale

I bought a 32-ounce growler of Cigar City's Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale at the brewery when I visited it on Oct. 2. I drank the beer several days ago.

The review

It pours a deep brown in color with a large sticky head. The smell is of toasted and roasted grain: coffee, molasses and chocolate notes.

The roasted smell carries over to the taste. Bread flavors mix with light tastes of chocolate and espresso.

The body is nice and creamy, probably thanks to the oatmeal.

This is another good beer from Cigar City and one that's the most approachable and balanced. Jai Alai IPA is my favorite Cigar City beer, closely followed by Improvicasion.

As far as I know this beer is only sold in kegs. They told me at the brewery that since they bottle in 750 mL bottles only, they would not be able to price this beer low enough for it to sell, considering it's their most "normal" beer.

SRQ beer scene featured in Herald-Tribune

My colleague at the Herald-Tribune, Steve Echeverria Jr., wrote an article, "Kings of beer" in Thursday's Ticket section that features the Cock & Bull Pub, Sarasota Brewing Co. and the Shamrock Pub. I confess I've never been to the Shamrock. I'll have to check it out. The soon-to-open World of Beer also gets a mention.

Here are two great excerpts from the article:

"The guys who say they love beer but only drink Budweiser, or they like a particular brand, are not true beer lovers," said Vince Pelosi, brewmaster at Sarasota Brewing Co. "The true beer lover tries them all."

This is exactly the way I think about beer. I can't wait to try new ones. Who knows? The best beer I've ever had may be the next one I find.

The second excerpt:

"My husband created the beer culture in Sarasota," said Hochberg's wife, Dawn.

Dawn, you're not exaggerating. Sarasota owes its beer scene to Howie Hochberg. And I owe my love of beer to your pub. It's where I learned about the wonders of the hop and how great a Belgian strong dark ale is.

The Herald-Tribune's online version of the story does not have all the cool photos -- taken by our incredible ace photographer Chip Litherland -- that are featured in the print edition. Here's Chip's picture of Howie from Ticket's cover:

So I'm not just shamelessly pimping our product when I say you should try and find -- dare I say buy -- a copy for yourself.

Review: Imperial White

Imperial While is from Samuel Adams' sort-of new Imperial Series. They're brewing four bigger beers year-round and selling them in four-packs.* The beers are: Imperial White, Imperial Stout and Double Bock. They also make a seasonal Imperial Pilsner, though they don't consider it part of the Imperial Series. All of these are very good beers and are some of SA's best. I'll post reviews of the other beers in the future.

I bought this four-pack at the Publix on University Parkway in southern Manatee County. That Publix has one of the grocery chain's best beer selections.

Check out this post for background on witbiers, or wheat beers. Basically, they are like German wheat beers -- meaning they are brewed with wheat as well as barley malt -- but also have coriander, orange peel and other spices added.

The review

It pours a cloudy copper in color after swirling the final ounces in the bottle. The head is thick, but not huge. It has a light banana and clove aroma, which are aromas typical of this style of beer.

The taste is very good. Big spice flavors like clove mix with sweet malt flavors and yeasty notes to make a super wheat beer. It's like a hefeweizen, but jacked up. The high alcohol is quite noticeable in the fusel flavors.

The body is also great: Smooth and creamy and slick.

This is a very good beer and one of Samuel Adams' best. I highly recommend it. Seek it out.

*Each four-pack sells for about $10, which is fine except that SA used to sell their Double Bock for the same price as their regular beer (about $7) in six-packs back when they only brewed Double Bock seasonally. Dollar, dollar bill, ya'll.

A visit to Cigar City Brewing

On Friday I drove to Tampa to visit Cigar City Brewing. The brewery is open for tours, tastings and sales Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. I got there a little after 4.

Like most breweries, it's a utilitarian place (no air conditioning) designed for brewing, not hanging out. The tasting room is a cordoned-off area of the warehouse.

They are a friendly bunch and were very willing to talk about the brewing process and their beers. They were very happy about winning a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival -- especially so because they have been in business for just seven months.

They had two beers available that day: Jai Alai IPA and Maduro brown ale. I had a (free!) sample of both of them and bought a growler of each. A growler is a to-go container that's filled with draft beer. Typical growlers in other states are 64 ounces. But, Florida law being what it is, Cigar City can only sell growlers that are 32 ounces (a quart) or less or 128 ounces (a gallon) or more. I bought two 32-ounce growlers.

You can bring empty growlers back to the brewery for refills. New 32-ounce growlers cost $4. Filling them with either Jai Alai or Maduro costs an extra $6. Refills are $5. New gallon growlers are $7 and filling them with Jai Alai or Maduro costs $18. Speciality beers cost a bit more. They also sell kegs.

Beer in growlers does not keep very long once you have opened it. I would suggest drinking it all within a day, otherwise it will be flat and the oxygen in the air will dull the flavor.

Cigar City photo gallery

Hover your cursor over each picture to read the cutline. I'd prefer to have cutlines appear beneath the photos but I haven't figured out a way to do that that doesn't look bad. Any ideas?

At a ball game, craft beer wins

My wife and I took her mother to see the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 5-3 on Saturday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. It had been about 10 years since I last went to a Rays game.*

I planned to get a draft beer at the game and remembered the choices being rather stark: Bud or Bud Light.** So I was surprised to see a Gordon Biersch counter on the way to our seats. Gordon Biersch is a craft brewery based out of Palo Alto, Calif. They brew good German-style beers and are a recent arrival in Florida. I bought a glass (I'm guessing it was about 16 ounces) of their Marzen, which is an amber lager traditionally brewed in March (hence the name) and conditioned (lagered) over the summer when higher temperatures made brewing difficult in the days before refrigeration. This style is also known as Octoberfest.

The beer was $9, ouch, but they filled my glass right to the rim. And all other beers sold there were either $8 or $9; a $9 craft beer beats a $9 Coors Light every time.

And the craft beer options didn't end with Gordon Biersch. I also saw Anchor Steam ($9) on tap at another drinks counter closer to our seats. 

*And I'm pretty sure the last game I saw was TB vs. NYY.

**That beer choice reminds me of the line from "The Blues Brothers," "We have both types of music: country and western!"

Review: Jai Alai IPA

Cigar City winning a gold medal for its barrel-aged Jai Alai IPA made me want to try its draft-only cousin. I've only heard good things about it and as a hophead I was feeling the urge after reading Cigar City's description:

Jai Alai IPA is a monster interpretation of an American IPA. In fact, it is so big that it equals the alcohol of some double IPAs on the market. Our IPA uses 6 different hop varietals, with Simcoe hops only being used for dry hopping. The rest of the hop additions are blended at different IBU's (International Bittering Units) in groups of three hops per addition in order to create more hop complexity.

The ever-helpful Kat told me that the Cock & Bull Pub had it. So I headed over there on Tuesday night and it was still available. Cock & Bull publican Howie Hochberg tells me that Jai Alai is only sold in 5-gallon kegs (compared to 15.5 gallon "regular" kegs). So it can sell out quickly.

From my notes:

It's orange -- almost red -- in color without much of a head and an intense hop aroma. The taste is great. Hops, hops and more hops. The hop flavor is almost juicy and fruity. This really reminds me of IPAs from San Diego. The body is light.

This is a wonderful beer and the best of the four Cigar City beer's I've had. I can't really do justice describing its hoppy flavor: You just have to try a sample to see what I mean.

I can see why its barrel-aged cousin won that gold medal.

And Cigar City, I have a two-word request regarding Jai Alai IPA: bottle it.

P.S. The Cock & Bull also had Cigar City's Maduro brown ale (another brew I haven't had) on tap, but since I was driving I didn't want to have a second beer. Next time, Maduro, next time ...