17: Tampa's Cigar City Brewing Has Kegs!!



263 50 L (13.2 gallons) kegs are now gracing the walls of our brewery. We also have 250 5 gal kegs, though we may be selling off some of them. So if anyone needs some 5 gal sankey kegs for around $80 let me know. After checking out the kegs we decided it would be better to just sticker them than spray paint stencil them. So our previously scheduled painting party is being postponed and we will be having a Stickering Party instead. We will post here once the stickers are made and anyone who is interested in coming down to help out can contact us at that time.



Our brewhouse and tanks are still set to arrive in June. We kegged our specialty Belgian Ale that we have dubbed Guava Grove and the Patio Pils is starting its lagering phase. With the American Imperial Stout, London Imperial Stout, Double Nut Brown Ale and Der Rauch Gott all fermented I'm feeling like we are getting some stuff done. Though we have run into some permit snags in regards to getting our floors done it looks like we are going to be able to work through it.

We go back for the final vote on our wet zoning on June 5th. Feel free to call or e-mail the city council members, especially Charlie Miranda and Linda Saul-Sena if you support what Cigar City Brewing is trying to do. If you don't support what we are doing then call them and tell them that too I suppose, but hey thanks for reading the blog even though you don't wish us well

I'm gonna turn the mike over to Wayne now. He has a few things he wants to say and gets more into detail about a few things I discussed.

Cheers,
Joey Redner

********************************************************************************************

Ladies and Gentlemen, Wayne Wambles:

Filling you in once again on what has been developing since the last time I wrote. Bob Hugenschmidt (our engineer) is moving forward with attempting to build the blueprint so that we can pull permits to start construction on the floors. He says that we should have everything that we need to obtain the permits by sometime in July. I can’t get him to be more precise on this topic but it does shave one month off the projected three month time frame.

I am also trying to get Joe’s dad to let us use the existing water line because it will save us between $6,500 and $20,000 on having a meter installed for just our business. We are going to continue to discuss this and figure out which way this is going to go as soon as we can.

I promised you the tasting notes for the Scotch Ale (Der Rauch Gott) and I haven’t forgotten them. Just got a little wrapped up that’s all. Here they are: Very dark brown in color with slight areas around the edges where light comes through. Tan head with slight amber hues. Moderate smoke up front with dark sweet toffee and mild roasted aromas. Very viscous body. Dark caramelized cane sugar initially then moving into smoke and complex big dark toffee sweetness with roasty notes that resemble hints of sweetened Greek coffee and chai in the finish. Leaves you with a cooked grain flavor in the finish as well. Warms as it goes down. It is what it is, an exceptionally strong Scotch, in which all aroma/flavor components of a normal Strong Scotch Ale are elevated to the next level.

I also tasted the Double Nut Brown last night and I will condense my overall impression into one sentence because I think that it will do it justice: Rum infused dark chocolate coated roasted peanuts. That is what you will perceive in this one. I must confess that this one has been my favorite so far. At first I was considering saving the bottle to share with someone since it is a 750 but once I opened it and tasted it I had to finish the whole bottle by myself. I still have yet to sample the Imperial Stout though. Joe is supposed to be checking out the Imperial and the Double Nut Brown tonight so I am looking forward to his feedback on these but after having spent the last two months plus with him and knowing what types of beers he likes I am sure that he will be overjoyed.

We kegged the Belgian-style Guava Wheat (Guava Grove) yesterday and are currently force carbonating it. Should be ready to try by tomorrow. Smells like spiced tropical fruit right now. It won’t see production as our Guava Wheat but it might be released once a year in this format and called Guava Grove. We haven’t shelved the idea yet so if you don’t live close by enough to volunteer and get to have it on draft at the brewery then you might get another opportunity to purchase it in Spring.

We have made a decision on our equipment now. We are just going to keep what we have already ordered from Premier Stainless until we have money coming in the door to purchase a secondary kettle for our parti-gyle idea. The numbers that we were negotiating with Premier for the refab we were considering were just not in the budget. If all goes well then we might be able to parti-gyle in the near future.

This is a sensitive subject so I will be brief regarding it. We have been casually approached by a very large local distributor. As in the largest local distributor. Use your imagination as to who. We haven’t made a decision by any means regarding letting them distribute us so don’t freak out yet. I won’t cover the details of this…instead I will let Joe discuss it, when he is ready.

We received all the kegs last Friday. After having a discussion about tagging versus stickering the kegs, we have decided to sticker them instead. This requires a proof to take to the printer. We are still waiting on the proof. I am not sure when it will arrive but if it looks good then we will go to print and then have a painting/sticker party. Paint the cold liquor (Bertha) and sticker the kegs. We will try and let you know when all this goes down. It will also allow us to give you bumper stickers or you could put them on whatever you want, (I am sure that some of you have very creative ideas as to where to you could apply these).

The Pre-Prohibition Pilsner (Patio Pils) is now going through lagering (finally…frickin’ thing took forever to ferment). It will be ready to package by June 20th. We have decided to keg it and it should be ready to sample by the last full week in June.

That’s all I have for now. I will continue to post so stay tuned.

 

             Take care,

             Wayne Wambles

             Head Brewer  

             laceName>CigarlaceName> laceType>CitylaceType> Brewing






Posted by Cigar City Brewing at 5/22/2008 5:02 PM
Categories: Cigar City Brewing in Tampa Florida will be using 50 liter and 5 gal kegs.
 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name (required)

 Email (will not be published) (required)

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.