(Tampa, FL) – From the “better late than never” file…
[12/20 Update: Check out more on the expansion at the Cigar City blog.]
Don’t know how I slept on this but Cigar City Brewing has a potential television show coming down the road. The Tampa Tribune reports:
Guy Nickerson, president of Spectrum Productions, says a film crew as been following the owner and staff of the Tampa-based craft beer microbrewery for months.
“We have not fully developed it yet, but it could be along the lines of ‘Miami Ink,’ ” says Nickerson. “Miami Ink” follows the colorful characters that work in a Miami tattoo parlor.
Nickerson says that there is growing national interest in craft beers. He also notes that Cigar City owner Joey Redner and his staff, including brewer Wayne Wambles, are interesting, colorful characters.
“The way they talk about beer is almost poetic,” Nickerson says.
Once the series is developed, it will be shopped to various cable networks and could be on the air by next year.
…The brewery’s tasting room is safe after it passed a final vote at city council last week. Toward the end of the clip, it sounds like the brewery is getting nine new tanks in the future and will be almost doubling capacity. As pointed out in the clip, the irony is that the unhappy neighborhood association may get its wish for no brewery. As Cigar City grows, there is a possibility that it will move to a new location.
…According to Mikkeller.dk, Mikkeller and CCB recently collaborated down in Tampa. The breweries made two imperial stouts with each brewer contributing a recipe. They will be released in a couple months and some of these batches will be blended into rum barrels. They also brewed an imperial IPA that will only be served at the Cigar City tasting room. It was brewed with Simcoe hops and oat flakes.