(February 6, 2019 – Tampa, Fla.) – Cigar City Brewing, one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the US, has announced the release of tickets to Hunahpu’s Day 2019, the premier craft beer festival in the Southeast US and the once-yearly release of its world-renowned Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout. Tickets for the Tenth Annual Hunahpu’s Day, which will be held on March 9th, 2019 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL, are currently available and include unlimited samples of beer from over 170 of the world’s most sought-after breweries as well as bottles of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, a monolithic dark beer brewed with cinnamon, vanilla, cacao nibs and three types of chile peppers. Bottles of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout are available exclusively in conjunction with Hunahpu’s Day tickets and are never otherwise sold to the public.
First released to celebrate CCB’s one year anniversary in 2010, Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout has become one of craft beer’s most coveted beers with thousands of beer devotees traveling to Tampa on the second Saturday of March each year for Hunahpu’s one-day release. Hunahpu’s begins life as an 11.2% Imperial Stout boasting strong notes of espresso and dark chocolate. After fermentation, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and cinnamon are blended with ancho, pasilla and guajillo chile peppers and the beer is recirculated over these adjunct ingredients. The resulting beer finds the perfect balance between sweet milk chocolate flavors, spice-derived complexity and a Scoville heat that’s slow building but never overwhelming. CCB Brewmaster Wayne Wambles named his mole-inspired beer after Hunahpu, one of the Hero Twins in Mayan mythology, as a nod to the beer’s Central American afflatus. Accolades followed immediately, resulting in appearances on RateBeer, Untappd and BeerAdvocate lists of all-time highest rated beers in the world.
Wambles and Cigar City Brewing’s Founder and CEO Joey Redner were so taken aback by the Stout’s reception among the craft beer community after its inaugural release that in they dubbed the beer’s release “Hunahpu’s Day”. “The goal was to celebrate our anniversary and draw attention to the release of this incredible beer,” says Wambles. “Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout is quite labor intensive and seriously inhibits our ability to brew our year-round beers when its in process, so we’re essentially limited to a once-a-year release for the beer. We thought, ‘If we can only release this beer that people really love once a year, let’s throw a party around its release!’” CCB invited several out-of-state brewery friends to pour their beer at Hunahpu’s Day in 2012, and thus lit the spark for a full-scale beer festival and celebration.
What began as several kegs from breweries like Indiana’s 3 Floyds being served alongside Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout in the CCB Tasting Room quickly grew to a world-class beer festival bringing together thousands of craft beer enthusiasts and dozens of brewers from around the world to celebrate the release of Hunahpu’s. The event grew exponentially from year to year, necessitating larger venues, more beer and the inclusion of local food vendors. Hunahpu’s Day 2018 proved to be Cigar City Brewing’s most successful event ever, with over 5,000 attendees enjoying rare beer from over 170 breweries who sent beer from Florida, California, Mexico, Denmark, Russia and everywhere in between.
Cigar City Brewing is offering several different ticket levels designed to make access to Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout and the Hunahpu’s Day festival accessible for all. Bottles of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, entrance to the 10th Anniversary Hunahpu’s Day Festival, unlimited pours of over 400 different beers, meal tickets for access to delicious food from local vendors, a souvenir tasting glass and other assets are all included with every level of Hunahpu’s Day ticket.
Additionally, CCB is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hunahpu’s Day by introducing two brand exciting new versions of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout available only to higher level ticket holders. Cigar City Brewing’s Special Events Manager Chris Madalena says, “To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hunahpu’s Day, we are excited to bring Hunahpu’s brother and mother to the party with two versions of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout available exclusively with higher level tickets. Xbalanque, which is rested on Amburana Wood lends a vanilla and chicory-like woodiness to the beer, has never before been released to the public, and Xquic, a version of Hunahpu’s that utilizes maple to round out the spicy roastiness, are bringing new dimension to this world-class beer.”
Visit Cigar City Brewing’s website cigarcitybrewing.com or hunahpusday.com for more information on Hunahpu’s Day 2019 and Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout.
About Cigar City Brewing
Cigar City Brewing, makers of Jai Alai IPA and Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, was founded in 2009 by Joey Redner with the goal of creating world-class beer that reflected the flavors and history of the Tampa Bay region. This unique approach has resonated with local and national markets and the brewery has quickly grown to produce over 140,000 barrels of beer annually. Accolades have poured in since the brewery’s inception, including appearances on ratebeer.com’s Top 10 Breweries Worldwide six times. Cigar City Brewing is a key partner in CANarchy, a craft brewing collective that represents the largest canned craft beer supplier in the country.
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