Tampa- Fresh off the heels of releasing their collaboration beer with Portland, Oregon’s Widmer Brothers Brewing (called The Gentleman’s Club), Tampa’s Cigar City Brewing has announced that they are not slowing down on the collaboration beers. Two more major collaborations have been announced this week, as Cigar City works with two national breweries that helped define craft beer: Chico, California’s Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Fort Collins, Colorado’s New Belgium Brewing Company.
Cigar City will be one of twelve breweries across the United States to collaborate with Sierra Nevada on their variety twelve-pack, to be released in the summer of 2014. The brewery then plans to tour the brewery folks to festivals across the country touring from Chico to Asheville, North Carolina, where their new Sierra Nevada brewery will open.
“We want to highlight the success of craft beer, not just our own next step,” said Ken Grossman, Sierra Nevada’s founder. “Craft brewers are a close bunch, and we’ve all helped each other get to this point. This is a fun way to showcase even just a fraction of the talent that’s out there, and somehow 12 beers doesn’t feel like enough. If this weren’t already a logistical mammoth, we’d brew with even more of our great peers.”
The specific travel path for festivals is a work in progress, but in spring 2014, these breweries will visit Chico to develop recipes and begin brewing:
Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, ME
Ballast Point Brewing Company, San Diego, CA
Bell’s Brewery, Inc., Kalamazoo, MI
Cigar City Brewing, LLC, Tampa, FL
Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Paso Robles, CA
New Glarus Brewing Company, New Glarus, WI
Ninkasi Brewing Company, Eugene, OR
Oskar Blues Brewing Company, Longmont, CO
Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa, CA
Three Floyds Brewing, LLC, Munster, IN
Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA
Local brewing community in Asheville, NC
Cigar City is not standing still after announcing this beer: a collaboration on a national scale. They also announced a collaboration with New Belgium Brewing Company of Fort Collins, Colorado. That beer will be a part of the New Belgium Lips of Faith Series, and will be distributed through New Belgium into Florida once it is available. The details on the beer itself: “it has a Belgian yeast, tons of citrus hops, some peppers and Spanish cedar.” More details on this beer will be posted as they emerge, but the best news is that this beer will be available at stores in Florida, no trading or travelling required.