NOTE: Original post/phots were from FEB 15, 2015. They have upgraded the tasting new so I have added a new slide from DEC 2020 to show the upgrades. Cigar City Brewing has been rated one of the top 10 breweries in the US by USA Today. We moved to Tampa ~7 years ago and at that time there was only Tampa Bay Brewery. Cigar City has great beer with their Maduro and Jai Alai being their flagship beers. Their most sought after beer is their Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout which according to their website is an 11 percent ale aged on cacao nibs, Madagascar vanilla beans, ancho chiles, pasilla chiles, and cinnamon. It has a 100 rating on rate beer.
I remember visiting the brewery when it first opened and they had a small tasting room. Just a small area (no bar) where you could taste beers and purchase/fill growlers. Since that time they have expanded the brewery (now covering the complete industrial complex) and have a large tasting room, souvenir store and also food trucks if you are hungry. They also have a cigar roller on the weekends.
The best deal on the weekends is to take the beer tour for $5. They have them on the hour and you beer a free beer glass, a 10oz pour of beer (we had Florida Cracker) and then you also get tastings throughout the tour (probably get 2+ total beers). The tour probably lasts about 30 minutes and the tour guy is very knowledgeable in the beers, history and process. This is a “must visit” location for locals and is a great spot to bring family/friends that are visiting Tampa. If you love craft beer, this should be your #1 place to visit during your stay.
We were celebrating my son’s 21st birthday so we had some beer flights. I have tasted several Cigar City beers but here are my unique Cigar City Check-ins from Untapp’d.
Very close to the Tampa airport so if you have a long layover, catch a cab (probably 5-10 minutes) and taste some great beers. For more info about the Cigar City Brewery, check out their website: www.cigarcitybrewing.com.