TAMPA, Fla. (December 4, 2018) – Cigar City Brewing has announced the release of tickets to Hunahpu’s Day 2019, the premier craft beer festival in the Southeast U.S. and the once-yearly release of its world-renowned Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout. The Tenth Annual Hunahpu’s Day will be held on March 9th, 2019 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. Tickets 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 chili peppers. Bottles of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout are available exclusively to Hunahpu’s Day ticket holders and are not otherwise sold to the public. Tickets can be purchased here.
First released to celebrate CCB’s one-year anniversary in 2010, Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout has become one of craft beer’s most coveted brews, with thousands of beer devotees traveling to Tampa each year for Hunahpu’s one-day release. Hunahpu’s begins as an 11.2% ABV 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 chili peppers. 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 inspiration. Accolades immediately followed the beer’s release, 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 that 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,” said Wambles. “Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout is labor intensive and seriously inhibits our ability to brew our year-round beers when it’s in process, so we’re 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 lit the spark for a full-scale beer festival and celebration.
Hunahpu’s Day has grown exponentially over the years, necessitating larger venues, more beer and the inclusion of local food vendors. Hunahpu’s Day 2018 was CCB’s most successful event ever, with over 5,000 attendees enjoying rare beer from over 170 breweries from all over the world.
This year, CCB will offer several different ticket levels designed to make 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 delicious food from local vendors, a souvenir tasting glass and other assets are included with every ticket level.
Additionally, CCB is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hunahpu’s Day by introducing two exciting new versions of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout available only to higher-level ticket holders. Cigar City Brewing’s Special Events Manager Chris Madalena said, “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 is rested on Amburana Wood, lends a vanilla and chicory-like woodiness to the beer. Xquic will also make its debut – a version of Hunahpu’s that utilizes maple to round out the spicy roastiness. Both introduce new dimensions to a world-class beer.”
Visit Cigar City Brewing’s website [www.cigarcitybrewing.com] or www.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.
About CANarchy
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, partially funded by Fireman Capital Partners, includes Oskar Blues Brewery, Perrin Brewing Company, Cigar City Brewing, Squatters Craft Beers and Wasatch Brewery, Deep Ellum Brewing Company and Three Weavers Brewing Company. CANarchy was ranked #9 on the BA’s list of the 2017 Top 50 U.S. Craft Brewers as ranked by sales volume. The platform brewed 359,000 bbls in 2017, reaching all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and parts of 17 countries spanning five continents. In 2018, CANarchy was named “Brewery of the Year” by Brewbound; and collective member Cigar City Brewing grew by more than 60%, making it the fastest growing Top 50 Craft Brewery of the year. Cigar City Brewing’s Jai Alai and Oskar Blues Brewery’s Dale’s Pale Ale are currently the #2 and #4 sold craft can six packs in Total U.S. Multi-Outlet and Convenience.