Cigar City Brewing owner Joey Redner has a problem with his beer: he cannot make beer fast enough for the thirsty masses who enjoy his brewery’s creations.
CCB has been looking into options for increased production and has even signed a contract with Lakeland’s The Brew Hub to increase his production by 20,000 barrels, but that is not enough.
Tuesday, in an interview with Brewbound, Redner revealed that Cigar City was looking into building a new brewery from the ground up. CCB has been in their current building at 3924 West Spruce Street in Tampa since 2008, but they have outgrown the building in terms of capacity. The brewery cannot make enough beer to satisfy demand. Redner says he thinks Cigar City could possibly sell between 160,000-175,000 barrels annually, but in order to do this, decisions must be made.
Redner said that he has looked at a site within the city of Tampa, and also searched outside Tampa for a new site. Redner says that the current legislative session in Florida has caused him some concern, and that concern has given him a tough decision to possibly build a new brewery (an $8 million construction project) outside of Florida.
“My concern is the general legislative uncertainty,” he said. “What will they come at us with next? At the end of the day, moving out of state is not the greatest option but it is something I have to consider.”
We wanted to get going (with the expansion) in about four months. We wanted to start making purchases but now we have to wait and see what happens legislatively.”
While HB 1329 (the so-called “Craft-Killing” bill) has been given a “strike all” provision, there is still a similar bill alive in the Florida Senate.