The 4th Annual Hunahpu's Day Release Party is set for Saturday, March 9th at Cigar City Brewing. This will also be the 2nd time Hunahpu's Day has been featured for Tampa Bay Beer Week.
Just like the previous three years, we're devoting an entire day to the release and turning our brewery into an event that can only be described as "a lot of people drinking, eating and having an awesome time."
In Mayan mythology, Hun Hunahpu was the father of the Mayan hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque. Hun Hunahpu, along with his brother Vucub Hunahpu, was tricked by the Dark Lords of the underworld and slain. Hun Hunahpu's corpse morphed into a cacao tree, his head becoming a cacao pod, which in typically awesome mythology fashion, spit upon the hand of a young maiden named Xiquic who promptly became pregnant with the hero twins. The twins would ultimately grow up to avenge their father and uncle and defeat the Dark Lords and ascend to the heavens to become the moon and sun.
We brew Hunahpu's Imperial Stout once a year and release it only at the brewery. We will continue to do so until the end of the cycle.
"Pours extremely dark in color with a brown head with notes of big chocolate and espresso, moderate notes of vanilla and cinnamon and a mild tinge of tobacco and chilis. The flavor opens with a big blast of chocolate and moderate espresso with elements of dark toffee and interjecting threads of vanilla with lingering hints of cinnamon and tobacco and chillies notes with a mild scoville heat in the finish." -Head Brewer Wayne Wambles
MEDALS 2009 Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting - 1st Place 2010 United States Beer Open Championship - Gold Medal 2010 Best Florida Beer Championship - Gold Medal 2010 Best Florida Beer Championship - 1st Place, Best in Show 2011 United States Open Beer Championship - Gold Medal 2012 Beverage Testing Institute World Beer Championships - Platinum Medal 2012
WHEN? - Saturday, March 9th, 2013. The gates will open at 7:50am. Feel free to line up outside beforehand, but the event will not start till the gates open at 7:50am. We'll be checking ID's when you enter the gate, so have your photo ID ready. - Draft beers will start pouring at 9:00am. That is the earliest we can legally pour beer. - Breakfast will be made available once the gates open. - Upon entering you will receive two wristbands: one to show that you're at least 21 years old and the other to secure your right to purchase Hunahpu's. - The bottles of Hunahpu's will go on sale at 12:00pm, or when the last wristband is handed out, whichever comes first.
WHERE? - Cigar City Brewing, 3924 W. Spruce St, Tampa FL 33607. Click here for a Google Maps link. We are located very close to Tampa International Airport. - The entire parking lot will be closed off and wet-zoned for the event, meaning there will be no parking on our property. - We are also closing off all parking at the brewery on Friday, March 8th.This will give us plenty of time to set-up and make sure everything goes as smooth as possible for Hunahpu's Day.
PARKING? - Expect very limited parking, so car-pooling is advised. - Parking will be available at the Sears & Roebuck Building just down the street from the brewery at 4005 W Spruce St. Here is a simple map that should explain it pretty well. There will be plenty of signs and staff to help with parking. This goes for both Friday and Saturday. - Overflow parking will be available by two of our generous neighbors. Equity, Inc. at 4107 W Spruce Street will allow CCB visitors to park there but be advised, they will have no security. TransWorld at 4115 W Spruce Street (the corner of Spruce and Lois) will be charging for parking. All proceeds will go to the charity The Shriners.Security will be provided from 6am-12pm.
THE BEER?
- Hunahpu's Imperial Stout is $20 per bottle. - There is a 3 bottle limit per person for the first 4,000 people to receive wristbands. - There is a 2 bottle limit per person for the next 1,000 people to receive wristbands. - You will receive a special wristband based on your limit for bottles. You can only have one wristband. - The wristbands are ABSOLUTELY required for purchase of Hunahpu's bottles and will be cut off of your wrist by an employee upon purchase. If you lose it we are very sorry but this is non-negotiable. Wristbands are handed out on a first-come-first-serve basis while supplies last, limited one per person. - All bottle sales will be cash only. - The bottle limit will end at 5:00pm. That means if you have a wristband you are ONLY guaranteed to your allotment until 5:00pm. If there are any bottles remaining, you will be able to purchase any amount of bottles you want (with a limit of one case, or 12 bottles), regardless of whether you've purchased any before or not. However quantities are limited so there is no guarantee there will be any bottles available at 5:00pm. - We will have several different sales points throughout the event to purchase the bottles. Exact locations will be determined and will made known on the day of the event by usage of signs.
TOKENS? - We are going to sell special tokens for $5 a piece. These tokens will be good for ANY purchase on Hunahpu's Day, excluding food trucks and non-affiliated vendors. This means you can use $5 tokens to purchase any beer, bottle, merchandise, etc., of equal value, inside the tasting room and outside. So in essence, a $5 token is equivalent to a $5 bill. There will be several booths selling tokens scattered around the lot. These tokens will be redeemable on Hunahpu's Day only.
OTHER BEER? - We plan to have many beers on tap just for the occasion. Not just our beers but guest beers as well from other breweries and homebrewers. - We will not be filling any growlers at all the whole day. Nor will we will be offering any sample flights or providing free samples of beers. If you want growlers for the weekend, we advise that you come get them filled on Friday. - The tasting room will accept credit cards. Of course, with the sheer amount of people that will be ordering beers, we'd like to offer some friendly advice and try to use cash if you can. It'll be easier for everyone! - All draft stations outside of the tasting room will require tokens only, absolutely no money. - We will be removing all chairs and tables from the tasting room to prevent people camping in there. It can get chaotic in there. There will be plenty of places to sit outside however. You can bring chairs and are encouraged to do so. - In addition to the tasting room, there will be several other places to get draft beer on the lot. - We encourage you to bring bottles of beers from home to share with others. However please remember to throw away any bottles you don't want to keep.
FOOD AND MUSIC? - Tampa Bay Food Truck Rally will be helping us organize a plethora of food trucks to be at Hunahpu's Day. We can't nail down any names just yet, but we can guarantee there will be a large variety. Exact food trucks will be announced soon! - In addition, there will be several other food vendors serving food. - We will have a stage set up with bands playing throughout the day. Music will start at 11:00am. We'll announce soon who exactly will be performing, but expect some good tunes! - There will be other avenues of entertainment that we're mulling over. Regardless there will be plenty to keep you entertained throughout the day (if beer isn't enough!).
PETS? - Pets are allowed as long as they are well-behaved and on a leash. You must clean up after them yourself, so bring some bags.
HOTELS? - There are several hotels nearby, due to our proximity to the airport. We have some discount codes that you can use. - Homewood Suites: Click here to reserve. (1.7mi from brewery) - Hilton Tampa Airport Westshore: Click here to reserve. (0.5mi from brewery) - Courtyard Marriott: Click here to reserve. (0.8mi from brewery) - Hilton Garden Inn: Click here to reserve. (1.8mi from brewery)
