Did you know the Cigar City Brewing Company of Tampa, Florida, has been assimilated? It’s true, and it happened way back in 2016. Cigar City wasn’t acquired by a larger brewery, though; instead, they partnered with Oskar Blues and several other breweries to form a collective of brewers pledged to each other’s mutual aid. Sort of like a NATO of brewers, if you will, designed to defend them against being bought out by a larger brewer. It also expands their distribution footprint.

That collective is called CANarchy and they have their own website where they say:

Founded in 2015, CANarchy is a disruptive collective of like-minded brewers dedicated to bringing high quality, innovative flavors to drinkers in the name of independent craft beer. The portfolio of craft breweries includes Oskar Blues Brewery, Cigar City Brewing, Squatters Craft Beers and Wasatch Brewery, Deep Ellum Brewing Company, Perrin Brewing Company and Three Weavers Brewing Company. In 2018, CANarchy was ranked #8 on the BA’s list of the Top 50 U.S. Craft Brewers as ranked by sales volume. In 2019, CANarchy grew shipments by 14% to 480,000 BBL and was the fastest growing among the top 20 craft suppliers in IRI Total U.S. Multi-Outlet and Convenience retail scans. The collective provides craft beverages throughout the United States and in parts of 17 countries spanning five continents.

I will say it’s been easier for me to find Cigar City beers since they were assimilated (we are the CANarchy, resistance is futile, we will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own). Not only has their flagship beer, Jai Alai IPA, become ubiquitous, but we also see more and more of their other beers, too. Beers like Cigar City Fancy Papers Hazy India Pale Ale.

Cigar City says:

Just as handsome designs printed on fancy papers and applied to cigar boxes are used to entice cigar lovers, we use Strata, Sabro, and Idaho 7 hops to draw in lovers of fruit-forward Hazy IPAs.

I picked up a crowler of Cigar City Fancy Papers Hazy India Pale Ale at Stout’s here in Canton recently for ten bucks. The beer has an alcohol content of 6.5% by volume with 60 IBUs.

Cigar City Fancy Papers Hazy India Pale Ale pours to an only gently hazy orange amber color with a thick foamy white head and a vibrant citrus rind nose. Taking a sip, the beer is softly malty with very light caramel and orange jello notes, bitter citrusy grapefruit rind, tangerine, pineapple, a hint of resin and a balancing bitter finish.  

Needs more malt for me, but I do like the tropical pineapple and tangerine notes.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

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