Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing will celebrate its fifth anniversary on March 9, but until now it has never released any sort of special brew for its anniversary. So to make up for it, this year the brewery will release five beers brewed for the occasion.
Each of the five department teams at the brewery is developing and brewing one of the beers. Though it’s not mentioned in the announcement, there’s bound to be an element of competition involved. The five styles will be a Gose, an American-Style Barley Wine, a New Zealand Style Double IPA, an Imperial Oatmeal Cream Porter, and a sour Florida Weisse.
Here’s the news release.
CIGAR CITY BREWING HONORS STAFF IN CELEBRATION OF 5th ANNIVERSARY
January 9, 2014(Tampa, FL) – Cigar City Brewing is issuing a special batch of beers in honor of its fifth birthday. The brewery, which sold its first beer March 9, 2009 has never celebrated its anniversary with a special beer release but will make up for it by releasing 5 Beers For Five Years, a series of five different beers, each one conceived entirely by each of the five departments in the brewery.
· The Packaging team will be producing a Gose Ale with fruit and spices added to emulate a margarita.
· The Brewing team is currently working on a unique American-style Barley Wine. This will be a unique take on the style by being heavily hopped with non-American hops.
· The Cellar team is contributing a New Zealand-style Double IPA. This big beer will feature copious amounts of hops from New Zealand.
· The Brewery Reps & Admin team are brewing an Imperial Oatmeal Cream Porter with lactose sugar, three types of chocolate malt and a generous amount of oats.
· The Tasting Room team will produce a sour Florida Weisse with tangerines.
“The last five years have been a blur, a whirlwind of constant and rapid growth,” said Wayne Wambles, Cigar City Brewmaster. “Meeting the increased demand has been a point of frustration that we are finally able to accommodate.” Cigar City Brewing founder Joey Redner echoed a similar sentiment regarding five years of growth, “We’re here and we’re going strong. It’s really cool that we’ve been embraced locally as well as internationally. It’s humbling.”
The 5 Beers For Five Years series will be released simultaneously. Each beer will be available in the Cigar City Brewing Tasting Room and Cigar City Brewpub as well as in very limited distribution around the first week of March.
Keep an eye on CCB’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages for upcoming news and events.
For the record, the first week of March coincides with Tampa Bay Beer Week, so don’t be surprised to see these beers poured March 8 during Hunahpu’s Day.
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