Joey Redner, a local beer columnist, started up a fledgling craft brewery in Tampa in October 2007. Located near Dale Mabry off Spruce Street (behind Target and Whole Foods) in a 6000 sq. ft. warehouse, Cigar City Brewing hopes to start production by September of 2008.

Cigar City Brewing has just hired it’s new head brewer, Wayne Wambles who was previously with Foothill’s Brewing in North Carolina. Beer making is something that I have really enjoyed for about a year and a half, so I’m looking forward to enjoying a locally produced craft beer. Maybe we can finally get good beer on tap in South Tampa.

You can find out more about Cigar City Brewing on their blog. Here’s what Wayne Wambles had to say when asked about the styles that he’s interested in for the new brewery:

“I am really interested in Belgian-style specialty ales for their allure, complexity and all the wonderful byproducts that Belgian-style yeast produces. I also enjoy sessionable IPAs that still retain malt character under the barrage of multiple waves of layered hop components. My interest in IPA stems from my love of hops and blending different varietals to create not just palate destroying bitterness but depth and complexity. I can drink a super aggressive IPA and be just fine but the ones that I truly enjoy always have some sort of malt backbone. Finally I would say that it would be nice to put lagers in the hands of the Floridians. I love German-style lagers for their maltiness and balance. Very few countries produce lagers of German quality and for that matter there aren’t enough full flavored lagers being made in the state of Florida. Hopefully Cigar City can change that.”

RSS 2.0 - trackback