So last month I decided to check out the Cigar City Brewing Company located on 3924 West Spruce St. in Tampa, FL. It was a rainy day and I was hanging out with my nephew who was in town from Colorado, so we decided it was the perfect day to go indoors and have a few cold ones.

This place has a nice layout and was a whole lot bigger than I expected.  They have two bars, the smaller one is towards the front with the larger fully stocked bar towards the back part of the facility.  In between, they have a section where they sell merchandise.  We headed towards the larger bar and we were greeted by a very nice and friendly bartender. She was extremely knowledgeable about their beer selection, which by the way, they have an amazing selection of beers. Anyways, back to the staff, overall the staff there was very friendly, except for the douchey bartender that had an attitude problem. The guy came across very arrogant! You could just tell he doesn't enjoy his job (maybe he was having a bad day IDK, but keep that kinda stuff to yourself man!).  The guy is such an idiot that I don't think he realized that I could hear him talking to his coworker about how sick and tired he was of customers asking him questions about the beers to which he said: "I just ignore them and simply don't answer them".  Don't worry though, this bad apple doesn't represent the whole company and I refused to let that ruin my experience there, but since I'm writing about my experience there, I will keep it 100% real with you.

After having a few beers, we decided to sign up for the brewery tour which cost only $8 dollars, talk about a bargain!  The tour is about 45 minutes long, and it includes some beer sampling (5 pours) and a nice collectible "Cigar City Brewery" 5 oz. glass. The tour guide was an extremely nice guy, very knowledgeable, and he really did a great job! During the tour he went over the history of the brewery, how it came about, their brewing process, a lot of fun facts, and how they come up with the names of their beers, among other things. I wasn't sure what to expect with this tour, but it turned out to be really interesting and a lot of fun.

As you walk through the brewery you'll get to see their fermenters, tanks, how the can and package their beers, the laboratory where they have actual chemist working, and even smell some of the hops they use (from Germany). The place was well organized and really clean.

Some of the beers that I really enjoyed were: Maduro (Brown-Ale), Lager (Tampa Style Lager), and the Florida Cracker (Belgian Style White-Ale).

Despite that bad apple that I previously mentioned, I can recommend going to the Cigar City Brewing Co. and doing the tour as well.  For $8 bucks the tour is totally worth it. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience and I really enjoyed tasting some really good beers. They have a great selection of beers on tap, and the atmosphere back at the bar after the tour was really good.  I am looking forward to going back and trying the food as I've heard it's pretty good.