Pensacola Beer

More good news from Cigar City Brewing (CCB) today as they announced their intent to focus more on their draft nitro beers. Joe Burn, CCB's National Sales Manager, stated:

We here at CCB have decided to place a focus on our draft nitro beers. We think the nitro adds a unique aspect to many brands. Our tasting room has two nitro taps and we want to get more nitro beers out into the market.

Even more importantly they've stated that the nitro releases will be brewed in sizable batches to be distributed throughout Florida, including the panhandle.

Cigar City Brewing Draft Nitro Schedule

2013
September: Minaret ESB
October: Hornswoggled Red Ale
November: Puppy's Breath Robust Porter
December: Minaret ESB

2014
January: Cafe Con Leche Sweet Stout
February-March: Patio Tools Dry Irish Stout
April: Vanilla Maduro Brown Ale
May: Hornswoggled Red Ale
June: Horchata Ale
July: Minaret ESB
August: Vanilla Maduro
September: Minaret ESB
October: Good Gourd Imperial Pumpkin Ale
November: Puppy's Breath Robust Porter
December: Minaret ESB

You can read more about these draft beers on CCB's Draft Beer Page. If you want to learn more about nitro beers, check out "Good Beer Gas: Nitro Beers Explained" over at CraftBeer.com.

We look forward to seeing CCB nitro drafts hit the Pensacola area and will let you know as soon as we receive more information.

"Why can't I find any Cigar City beer?" seems to be a common question lately along the Panhandle and throughout parts of Florida. However, we may soon see a noticeable increase in CCB products flowing into the local area. A recent email we received from Joe Burns, CCB's National Sales Manager, stated:

Cigar City Brewing has done all that we can to have a presence once again in the Florida panhandle. We have done everything we can, in working with our distributors, not to bring on new accounts to sell our products. However the amount of beer sold in our existing retail outlets has gone up over 75% this past year. We still are unable to meet demand even with the expansion of the brewery. We will be receiving 6 additional 120bbl tanks in the month of August. This will essentially max out our capacity at our Tampa facility at about 60,000bbls. With this expansion we do envision going back into the Florida panhandle full time with our core beers as well as our seasonals.

Photo Courtesy of Cigar City: Brewhouse #2 with four new 120bbl tanks

Though it may be disappointing not to find your favorite CCB product on the shelf, it's great news that the demand for CCB just within Florida is so great that CCB can't meet demand, even with recent expansions.

On Monday, Cigar City posted on their Facebook page that two of the 120 bbl tanks already arrived. So hopefully soon we will have a steady inflow of CCB into the Florida panhandle.