Cigar City enters West Virginia

As I sit in Florida today enjoying a glass of Jai Alai IPA, my mind floats back to a time one decade ago. It was October, 2009 when I first learned of Cigar City Brewing while attending the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. The brewery was less than a year old then when its Humidor Series India Pale Ale won the coveted GABF gold medal in the Wood- and Barrel-Aged Beer category.

Over the next year, I couldn’t help but notice the excitement created in the beer world by Cigar City’s Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, with its dark, mysterious spicy chocolate flavors. Along with its cousin, Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout, they caused a storm of activity on the beer fan web sites and became some of the most sought-after and highly-rated beers of the year.

The brewery has gone through some transition over the years, but it still is known for making very good beer. No longer locally owned, Cigar City is part of the Canarchy group along with Oskar Blues and several others. The good news is, without the Canarchy backing, we would likely have never seen the brand in West Virginia.

When I first visited Cigar City in 2010, they were still feeling their way ahead, but had already introduced the beer that would become the brewery’s bread and butter: Jai Alai IPA. As I interviewed brewery founder-owner Joey Redner for a restaurant-related beer article, I could tell he was surprised by the national buzz his brewery had created in its short life. He was obviously happy about it, but I don’t think he in any way expected it. He had set out to make good beer for the local market: “beer we like to drink,” as he called it. His idea was to offer beer that contained the essence of and paid homage to the history and culture of the Tampa Bay region. He didn’t realize that the products produced from this locally-focused business philosophy could have such a national draw.

Many influences, many flavors

Tampa has long been a melting pot of cultures: Hispanic, African American, Native American, and Anglo. The cigar industry that sprang up there grew from the city’s Cuban/Caribbean region connections. Cigar City Brewing was designed to celebrate the roots and flavors of the local culture and to honor the people who came before. They wanted to help hold on to some of that culture before it was lost to the blander American modernity that came with the region’s rapid growth during the last 25 or 30 years.

Jai Alai IPA, named for the court sport popular around Latin America and for many years played professionally in Tampa, helped change Florida IPA forever. When it hit the market, its more Clematine-tangerine leaning citrusy hop aroma and taste touched a sweet spot that propelled it to local, then regional fame. As a new beer in 2010, it won the gold medal at the Florida beer championships. It was off and running.

Hunahpu’s and Marshall Zhukov stouts were among the first to widely popularize ingredients, tastes, and brewing styles that have become common today and are now found in Imperial stouts produced by West Virginia breweries. Zhukov had the big, intense chocolatey espresso flavor on a dark molasses base, while Hunahpu’s added to that with cinnamon and hot peppers. The wild buzz around Hunahpu’s in its early days had a lot to do with popularizing the Mexican Stout category that is widely produced today.

Cigar City also made a big mark with its early brews containing tropical fruits, Cuban coffee and others aged on cedar wood. Cigar City beers containing fruits such as guava, lime, pineapple, and papaya, in both clean and sour treatments, gave many folks their first taste of fruited brews. The beautiful coffee expression the brewery achieved with its Caffe Americano Stout and Cubano Style Espresso Brown Ale still stands out to this day. For its Humidor series, resting beers on cedar spirals to give them a touch of cigar box flavor was genius.

Before and after

Probably the brewery’s biggest contribution, however, was creating the business environment necessary for the Tampa-St. Petersburg region’s explosive craft brewery growth. Before Cigar City, the Tampa Bay region was a craft beer wasteland. Now, it is arguably among the best four or five beer regions in the country. The region’s craft beer ascension is testament to the impact one single successful brewery can have on a region. Cigar City showed it can be transformative.

Redner gives credit to Wambles

Back in 2010 when I was talking with Joey Redner. he was not shy about sharing credit for his brewery’s success. While Redner was surely the lead spirit behind Cigar City Brewing’s culture, he gave his head brewer Wayne Wambles all the credit for being the hands in handcrafted. The recognition Wambles‘ beers have received is solid proof of his artistry. He is a master at incorporating different flavors and finding balance. He is respectful of, but not bound by tradition. His traditional styles are beauties, but he is not afraid to break into new territory. Over the last 10 years, he has proven himself to be among the top echelon of American brewers. And Wambles still guides the Cigar City brands in his new role with Canarchy.

Welcome to WV

As Cigar City beers find their way around West Virginia this week, hoist your glass of Jai Alai IPA and honor a brewery that has truly made a difference in the landscape of American craft beer.

We salute you, Cigar City, and welcome you to West Virginia.

Release Events

Charleston – Bar 101, Monday

Huntington – Summit Beer Station, Tuesday

Morgantown – Apothecary Ale House, Tuesday

Huntington – Taps at Heritage, Wednesday

Teays Valley – The Pallet Bar, Thursday

Lewisburg – The Asylum, Thursday