Cigar City brings home a gold from the Great American Beer Festival
September 30, 2009 at 10:20 am by Brian Ries
Ybor brewery Cigar City has rocked the beer world since its first release last year, with ratings on beer review sites that put some of its brews at the top of the heap, along with widespread critical acclaim. Now the local brewery can add another bauble to its trophy case.
In the annual Great American Beer Festival National Beer Competition, Cigar City’s Cedar-aged Humidor Series India Pale Ale took a gold medal for the Wood Aged Beer category. Here’s a quote from judge and UK beer writer Melissa Cole that sums up why:
“The stand-out beer for me that I judged, in terms of innovation, was the winner of the gold category in wood-aged beers, the Humidor Series IPA, Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL. It is aged on the wood of cigar boxes, which is called cigar cedar but is actually from the mahogany family, and the spice and aroma it imparts to the beer is absolutely incredible. The base beer IPA itself was technically flawless and the pepper, sandalwood, vanilla, cinnamon, cedar, leather and tobacco notes that poured off it were more akin to a rum descriptor than a beer but still incredible nonetheless.”
Over 3,300 beers entered the competition, in a wide variety of categories, with only 78 garnering the gold. It’s a clear sign that Cigar City’s owner Joey Redner and brewmaster Wayne Wambles have entered the national beer scene in a big way, quickly morphing from their enterprise from a local craft brewer to a beer force to be reckoned with.
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