(Tampa, FL) – I mentioned The Big 6 recently, a group of beers that are surrounded by much fanfare each year. I think that the exclusive club is about to induct its second member of 2010: Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout.

Cigar City, the craft beer “rookie of the year” for 2009, is about to host its first major beer release. Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout is currently ranked 13th in the world on RateBeer.

Here are the important details:

“Hunahpus will be sold in 25.4 ounce bottles (750ml).
There is a strict limit of 6 bottles per person during the first go around.
The beer will cost $20 per bottle which includes all taxes.
The beer will go on sale promptly at 7PM
The beer will be sold by sequential ticket number. meaning when your numberis called (via the PA system) you should make your way to the bottle booth as expeditiously as possible.

Tickets for Hunahpus are attainable at the brewery starting at 11 AM on March 12th […] ”

More can be found on the official blog.

While Cigar City doesn’t provide a specific bottle count, RateBeer vet and brewery local, GunHaver, says that there are approximately 3,000. I have no reason to doubt him.

Head Brewer, Wayne Wambles, said that they brewed a 30 barrel batch of this in early December on The Brewing Network. That would translate to over 4,600 750 mL bottles depending on what’s lost in the brewing process. That leaves about 1/3 of the batch unaccounted for so the rest of it is likely barrel-aging, going into kegs or both. Will any bottles hit stores?

What’s in the beer: Peruvian Cacao Nibs (mostly raw, added during secondary fermentation), Ancho and Pasilla Chiles (which contribute some tobacco-like notes), Madagascar vanilla beans and threshold levels of cinnamon.

Other Cigar City notes:

Wambles was also recently interviewed outside of Rattle n Hum Bar in New York. Cigar City Brewing produced 780 barrels in 2009, according to Wambles and he expects them to hit 1,000 next month when the brewery reaches its one-year anniversary. He says that goal for the next year is to reach 3,600 barrels and that the long-term goal is to hit 15-20k barrels annually.

Wambles also tips off that 110k+OT Batch 3 will be a “very big Double IPA.” Cigar City is experimenting with Citra and some other hops that are new to them this year. The 110k+OT Series is the brewery’s equivalent to what anniversary beers are at many other breweries, a periodic release in which the beer is different for each new batch. The series is named after a RateBeer thread in which a member said that they made $110k and overtime and were wondering how much money other people made. Though the thread was deleted, it still lives on in RateBeer lore.