Monthly Archive for April, 2009

For probably the last year or so I’ve been following a blog about a couple of guys trying to start up a new micro-brewery over in Tampa, FL — where as I am located in Orlando, FL — and the interesting adventure they’ve gone through in order to start churning out beer.  Between the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County, and numerous contractors they’ve hit just about every brick wall along the way.  In the end of it all Cigar City Brewing is finally able to brew the nectar we all love so much .  They have a great lessons learned for anyone else in the area hoping to follow in their footsteps, but most of it boils down to: have plenty of money and patience.

Cigar City has an interesting approach to all of the craft beers they create: incorporate local cultural and ingredients in all of the beers they create.  As a step further they also age some of their beers in whiskey barrels or add cedar chips to the beer while it ages.  The final product is damn good.  So far I’ve only been able to sample 2 of their beers: Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale and Bolita Brown Double-Nut Brown Ale.  Both of these far exceeded my expectations (Redlight Redlight here in Orlando literally got the very first keg of Maduro).

There is a beer bar over here in Orlando, Redlight Redlight, that specializes in only carrying American and Belgium craft beers.  These guys have 20 beers on tap and 70 more beers in bottles.  Its a craft beer drinkers paradise.  I was hoping to sample the Maduro again, but they finished it off and switched to the Bolita Brown.  Here is what Cigar City has to say about their baby:

Bolita was a type of lottery popular with the working class citizens of the Ybor City district of Tampa. Bolita means, “little ball” but profits from the illegal (and often rigged) game were anything but little. In the 1920′s Tampa native Charlie Wall (center label donning the dapper hat) was the undisputed kingpin of the Bolita racket. Our Bolita is a Double Northern English-style brown ale that has a complex malt forward character with notes of chocolate, toffee and hints of roasted nuts in the finish. Bolita pairs well with Baklava, Big Band Music, Cool Evenings and robust cigars.

The tasting notes really do speak the truth.  The chocolate and toffee is noticable in both aroma and taste.  The roasted nuts in the finish? Yeah, theres definitely a finish of toasted nuts, but its not too strong.  This isn’t a beer you drink fast by any means drink it slow and enjoy it. If you can find this on tap somewhere I’d recommend trying it.