(Tampa, FL) – News and notes on Cigar City Brewing . . .

Major expansion is afoot at Cigar City. According to the brewery’s blog earlier this month: “When these new tanks are plumbed in with glycol, it will add 180 bbls of fermentation capacity and 60 bbls of brite tank capacity. We currently have 120 bbls of fermentation capacity and 45 bbls of brite tank capacity. So this represents a 1.5X increase in capacity to a total of 300 bbls of fermentation capacity (plus another 25 bbls in our open top fermenter for Guava Grove) and 105 bbls of brite tank capacity. With the tanks we currently we’ll be able to brew around 6,600 bbls in a full year, a 660% increase from the 1,000 bbls we did in our first year (well really 9 months as we started in March).”

One of the beers that will benefit from the additional tanks is Maduro Brown Ale. The beer is already available year-round on draft though Cigar City will soon bring it to 12 oz. bottles as well. This is a Brown Ale that features oatmeal to smooth out the mouthfeel. Again, it is highly regarded on RateBeer, achieving the 99th percentile for brown ales.

Cigar City received approval for a new Humidor Series IPA 750 ML label last week. So far it is only available year-round in Tampa but distribution will expand to the rest of Florida and then PA and NY in the coming months according to Cigar City’s Joey Redner. This is the brewery’s Jai Alai IPA aged on cedar spirals. It won a gold medal at the 2009 GABF (Wood and Barrel-Aged beer) and ranks in the 100th percentile among all IPAs on RateBeer. 7.5% ABV.

Finally, The Full Pint got a scoop last week on an upcoming collaboration with Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead Brewery and Ryan Witter of Norrebro Bryghus. Per Redner:

“We have been calling the beers ‘TransAtlantic IPAs’ as we are juggling making dark, hoppy beers using ingredients that would be easily accessible in Denmark for one of the beers and ingredients we can get in the US for the other. The plan right now is for Shaun and Ryan to come to Tampa in September to brew the two beers and then hopefully to send Wayne to Denmark to brew another beer in the collaboration.”