Cigar City Brewery – Tampa, FL

 

Lance and I both worked on his birthday last Sunday, so I told him we could do whatever he wanted to celebrate on our next day off together on Tuesday.  So of course, part of that celebration had to include drinking some beer. 

We’ve been making our way around all the Tampa Bay area breweries, but surprisingly we hadn’t made it to Cigar City yet.  We’ve been to the Brewpub (which has fantastic food), but the brewery tasting room was a fun experience. 

 

 

When you first walk in, there’s a separate growler-filling station with about a dozen beer choices.  Next you walk past a merchandise booth with Cigar City shirts, mugs, and even beer-scented soaps. 

The main tasting room had 18 of their own beers on tap along with 6 from guest breweries.  We ordered flights (you can’t get the guest beers for flights, but I wanted to try the Cigar City ones while there anyways…) 

 

I liked the Cherry Berliner Weisse – although it’s only 2.7% ABV, so it’s nothing strong.  On the other hand, the Mercielago was REALLY strong.  It’s an ale aged in tequila barrels with cumin and lime peel.  The tequila was a bit overpowering for me, but Lance liked it. 

I was really excited to fill up a growler of their Cubano Espresso brown ale.  I had a sip of my brother’s a few weeks ago and it was amazing!  It’s brewed with espresso beans, vanilla, and cacao nibs.  He had it in a frosty mug and it almost tasted like a frappuccino.  It’s been brewed in previous years with beans from Mazzaro’s Italian Market, but this year I’ve read that it’s being brewed with Buddy Brew’s Cubano Espresso coffee.

Unfortunately, everyone else seems to like that beer as well – they were completely out by the time we went to fill up our growlers!  We filled up with some Jai Alai instead. 

Cigar City Brewing is located at 3924 West Spruce Street, Tampa, FL 33607 and is open 11am – 11pm Sunday – Thursday and 11am – 1am Friday – Saturday.   

Tampa Bay Brewing Company

 

We’ve been on a mission to try every local craft brewery (there are about 50 that I know of…so we’ve got a ways to go!)  If you need help picking one, The Brewery Bay is an awesome website that has a map of all the Tampa Bay area breweries, then lets you filter them by whether they are pet-friendly, offer growlers, have live music, have food, and more. 

On our day off last week, we visited Tampa Bay Brewing Company in the heart of Ybor City.  I’d been there once before for drinks, but this time we had lunch there as well.  They have an indoor restaurant as well as an open-air patio.  Since it’s been a little chilly lately, we ate inside. 

 

 

The place was all decked out for Christmas.  We were there around 2pm on a Wednesday, so it wasn’t very busy.  I was happy to hear that they offered beer flights so we could sample a variety.  I tried the Reef Donkey APA, Red Eye Amber Ale, Wild Warthog Hefeweizen, and their special Phantom Dark Ale (one of their seasonal beers).  I actually liked the APA best, which isn't usually my type of beer.  Lance had a double IPA along with a few flights as well. 

 

 

 

For lunch, Lance had the Brew House Cheese Burger and I had the Bad A** BLT Sandwich.  The burger was good, but I’d highly recommend the BLT.  They definitely didn’t skimp on the bacon.  Lance had his with fries and I chose the white cheddar mashed potatoes as my side. 

 

 

We wandered Ybor for a bit afterwards to walk off our meal (there are stray chickens and roosters all over!) 

 

One more brewery down, dozens more to go!  

Tampa Bay Brewing Company is located at 1600 East 9th Avenue, Tampa, FL 33605 and is open 11am – 11pm Monday through Thursday, 11am – midnight Friday/Saturday, and noon – 11pm on Sunday. 

The Outpost – Tampa, FL

Tonight we tried The Outpost Tap House + Tavern for dinner.  We bought a Creative Loafing deal so that saved us $10 on our meal (we are big supporters of CL Deals/LivingSocial/Groupon to save a bit when we dine out).    

It wasn’t very crowded (but it’s a Sunday night – not the most popular day to go out to eat).  It had a similar atmosphere to the Avenue with exposed ceiling, wood accents, and industrial metal chairs. 

 

We sat at a booth and were helped immediately.  Since it was before 7pm they still had happy hour specials, but all the beers that qualified were pretty lame (Miller, Bud, etc).  I ended up getting a flight ($10 for 4 different beers) and the glasses seemed pretty large for a flight.  I had tried most of the beers before, but the Harpoon UFO was new to me – it tasted a bit like grapefruit which was very refreshing. 

For dinner I got the BeerLT Sandwich (a BLT sandwich on beer battered sourdough bread with a fried egg) and Lance had the Tampa Cheese Steak Sandwich.  They both came with a side of fries – I’m not normally that interested in fries unless they are sweet potato, but these had a lot of spices on them and were nice & crispy. 

I would recommend my sandwich – Lance’s was alright but probably could have used a bit more steak.  Overall a good restaurant – not a very extensive food menu, but a decent sized draft beer selection.  It would be a great sports bar to go catch a football game (although their tv connection was bad tonight...it was raining and kept cutting out, so maybe only on sunny days).  It had a pretty low-key atmosphere, but I’m guessing that’s just because it’s a Sunday.

They have trivia on Mondays and Wednesdays, karaoke on Tuesdays, live music Thursdays, and Ladies’ Night on Fridays, so it seems that the week days are their busy time and probably an entirely different experience. 

The Outpost Tap House + Tavern is located at 909 W Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL 33606 and open 11am – 3am Monday through Sunday.