Cigar City Brewing, easily the most widely- recognized craft beer brand based in the Tampa, Florida area, has announced a new member to its year- round family. The beer is Margarita Gose, a light, refreshing ale.
Fans of Cigar City Brewing are likely already familiar with Margarita Gose. It was originally released in 2014 as a celebratory beer of sorts as it marked the brewery’s fifth year in business. The beer was brought back periodically for release, much to the delight of the beer’s legions of fans who quickly developed a lasting taste for its fruity, effervescent qualities.
Considering the popularity of Margarita Gose, one might wonder why it wasn’t added to the regular release list a long time ago. Well, part of the reason was length of time of the brewing process. The beer was brewed using a traditional kettle souring method that included pitching lactobacillus yeast. This yeast helped produce the beer’s characteristic acidity, but on the negative side, it took three days longer to brew a batch when compared to Cigar City Brewing’s other beers. Early this year, Cigar City Brewing replaced the yeast with another strain that managed to keep the beer’s most important characteristics intact without the need for kettle souring. This cut back the production time, making Margarita Gose more viable for large scale production.
Wayne Wambles, Cigar City Brewing’s Brewmaster, says the new production method for Margarita Gose made all the difference.
“Experimentation with this yeast strain has been a game changer for Cigar City Brewing,” says Wambles. “The clean sourness provided is a perfect complement to the vibrant citrus character of Margarita Gose, and we are pleased to offer this refreshing beer that was created by our team back in 2014.”
Cigar City Brewing brand manager Neil Callaghan is grateful for the work of the brewing team to mimic the original Margarita Gose and he knows fans of the beer will be thrilled when they hear it is going to be available year- round.
“After years of teasing beer lovers with small, brewery-only releases, we couldn’t be more excited to bring Margarita Gose to an international audience”, said Callaghan. “The work that Wayne Wambles and his team put into creating the beer’s recipe and refining its production method is beyond impressive, and the approachable, moderately tart beer that’s resulted from that work speaks for itself,” Callaghan added.
Margarita Gose is an approachable thirst- quencher with flavors such as lime, orange, and sea salt. The beer is more tart than sour, has a highly sessionable alcohol by volume of only 4.2 percent, and has only 5 IBU of bitterness. The beer will be distributed to all of Cigar City Brewing’s present 40 state footprint by the end of 2019 and will be sold in kegs and 12 oz. cans. Look for it where other Cigar City Brewing beers are currently sold.
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