Waynestock: Cigar City's Head Brewer Hits Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton on Wednesday

Are you a fan of craft beer? How about specifically Cigar City Brewing? Don’t have the time to travel to Tampa? Want me to stop asking open-ended questions?

If you said yes, then Wednesday night is a night of joy for you. This Wednesday (April 29), the head brewer at Cigar City Brewing, Wayne Wambles, will make a stop in our neck of the woods to hang out and share some of his epic beer knowledge with us beer plebs.

First, starting about 4:30 p.m., Wambles will head down to the FTL with a stopover at Craft Beer Cartel, answering questions on brewing and sampling the Cartel's Blueberry Muffin Brown Ale and White Oak Peach IPA.

Native Brewing and Craft Beer Cartel cofounder Adam Fine explains: "The 'Meet the Brewer' series has been a great way for craft-beer drinkers and homebrewers to get to know the brewers and owners that have played integral parts in the craft-beer revolution. From hearing craft-beer giants like Kurt Widmer talk about the early days of starting a brewery before anyone knew what craft beer was to listening to the brewers from J. Wakefield talk about how they brew and make some of their groundbreaking sours, this is a great way to get to gain insight into the craft-brewing industry and the people who are influencing it today on both the business side and the brewing side... Learning what it takes to be a professional brewer can also be helpful to aspiring brewers.

"As for Wayne, I think it can be said that there has been no more influential figure in the Florida craft-brewing scene since Cigar City came on line," he continued. "His style and flair with his core brands like Jai Alai and Florida Cracker and his riffs and treatments of beers like Cubano Espresso, White Oak IPA, and Hunahpu's have influenced a whole generation of brewers and breweries in Florida."

Lisa Siegel, also of the Cartel and the adjacent Riverside Market, shares that the influences from both of their businesses give them a camaraderie in the beer community.

"Cigar City opened six years ago, around the same time we opened Riverside Market," she says. "We really feel like our companies have grown up together, and we are so excited to have our customers get to meet the brewer responsible for some of our favorite Florida-brewed craft beers."

The free event is free and open to the (21-and-older) public and will last for about two hours, until 6:30 p.m.

Afterward, Wambles is scheduled to head up to Boca Raton's Sybarite Pig for an epic Waynestock event, with the tapping of quite a few uncommon kegs of Cigar City beer. Teased are the Milkmaid, Florida Man DIPA, Big Sound Scotch Ale, White Oak Jai Alai, and Table Saison, among a few others.

The Sybarite Pig shenanigans begin at 7:30 p.m. When will it end? That's up to Wayne. And I doubt Aerosmith and Pearl Jam will be there, but you never know!

Craft Beer Cartel is located at 557 SW 12th Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-401-5808, or visit squareup.com/market/craft-beer-cartel.
Sybarite Pig is located at 20642 State Road 7  in Boca Raton. Call 561-883-3200, or visit sybaritepig.com.

Doug Fairall is a craft beer blogger who focuses on Florida beers, and has been a homebrewer since 2010. For beer things in your Twitter feed, follow him @DougFairall and find the latest beer pics on Clean Plate's Instagram.