Cigar City Brewing’s Joey Redner and Wayne Wambles recently did an interview with Puerto Rico’s Beer Rican in a YouTube video. The video features footage of Cigar City’s staff brewing at Cervezas del Sur in Ponce, Puerto Rice and lots of information on CCB’s island adventures. In the original video, Joey and Wayne discuss Cigar City’s Puerto Rican brewing adventures, the process of making, shipping, and canning Dry-Hopped on the High Seas, and Cigar City’s goals for expansion into Caribbean and South American markets.
Some highlights:
Dry-Hopped on the High Seas:
*The first batch was dry-hopped with Simcoe hops, and the second batch will feature Ahtanum hops.
*The IPA was shipped unfiltered from the brewery in Ponce with dry hops, the beer then arrives in Jacksonville, is shipped to Tampa where it is centrifuged, carbonated, and canned.
*The whole process from Ponce to Tampa takes 6-7 days from container to can.
*In this beer, Wambles has learned a lot about water profiles and has taken advantage of Cervezas del Sur’s reverse-osmosis filtration and stripped out all minerals in the water. Wambles then rebuilt the water profile of Dry-Hopped on High Seas to be a blend of Burton-on-Trent, London, and Dortmund to feature a sulfate bite in the finish of the beer.
Cigar City and the Caribbean market:
*Cigar City will continue Dry-Hopped on the High Seas.
*Cigar City would like to brew beer for Puerto Rico.
*Cigar City has a goal of producing beer at Cervezas del Sur for the Caribbean, Panamanian, and possibly Brazilian beer markets.
*Cervezas del Sur has a 200 hL (170-barrel) brewhouse with fermenters as large as 1,000 hL (852 barrels) that Cigar City can utilize for brewing in Ponce.