Have you heard about the latest crisis on the craft beer scene? Breweries are running out of names for their beers. Not that there aren’t plenty of names out there, it’s just that, increasingly, a lot of them are taken. One of the ways around that (and one that I prefer) is to go local. That’s exactly what the Cigar City Brewing Company of Tampa, Florida did with their Tocobaga Red Ale. The beer is named for the Tocobaga Indians and I’ll let Cigar City tell you more about that.
The Tocobaga lived off the bounty of Tampa Bay hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500’s. They were potters, tool makers and the only Florida natives to grow maize. The large platform mounds they built are still with us today, with one of the largest found near Old Tampa Bay in Safety Harbor, Florida. Climb to the top, and with a little imagination, you can see Tampa Bay as they did.
Cigar City beers are still hard to find here in Georgia, although they do pop occasionally. I haven’t seen the Tocobaga Red Ale here yet, but the fine folks down at Stout’s Growlers were kind enough to bring me back a can from a Florida trip. This is a red ale on the stronger spectrum of the style to be sure, and a very good one at that.
Cigar City Tocobaga Red Ale has an alcohol content of 7.2% by volume with 75 IBUs. The can exhorts the drinker to “Drink fresh! Do not age! “. So I did……
Cigar City Tocobaga Red Ale pours to a, well, red color with a thick creamy head and a luscious stewed malt nose. Taking a sip, this is an anomaly amongst Cigar City beers, because it’s quite malt forward. Big, beautiful toasty and stewed malt notes really come to the forefront and define the beer. That’s not to say it isn’t hoppy, too-it sure is, in the finish, with herbal grassy hop notes and a huge long dry bitterness. Would you expect a Cigar City beer without assertive hops? I didn’t think so. The beer becomes hoppier as it warms with passion fruit and citrusy grapefruit, too.
Still, it’s the malt that is really grabbing my tongue here, maybe because I love malty beers so much. Cigar City Tocobaga Red Ale is wonderful and should not be missed, if you can find it.
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