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Since the dawn of time, humans have felt the need to travel to places with unique spiritual significance in hopes of experiencing enlightenment. So it is only fitting to keep the spirit of the pilgrimage in mind when releasing a beer named after gods – as is the case with Hunahpu’s Day at Cigar City Brewing.
In Mayan mythology, Hun Hunahpu was tricked by the Dark Lords of the underworld and slain. Hun Hunahpu’s body was reincarnated into the cacao tree, with his head becoming a cacao pod. One day, a beautiful maiden by the name of Xiquic walked by and Hun Hunahpu spit in her hand, promptly impregnating her with twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The hero twins would grow up to avenge their father, defeat the Dark Lords, and rise to the heavens to become the sun and the moon. Both the sun and the moon were present to look upon the people who made the pilgrimage to celebrate Hunahpu’s Day.
This year, there were only 4,000 bracelets given out to purchase up to three bottles of Hunahpu. Since it was first-come, first-served, the crowd started to form as early as 3 am – with dozens, then hundreds, then thousands camped out in a line that wrapped past the brewery, around the block, and snaked through the parking lot of a nearby home improvement store. Gathered in small circles around coolers throughout the line, everyone seemed to be in jovial and generous moods, with bottles of this and that being passed around by beer lovers from across the country. By the time the sun came up, the atmosphere was buzzing with excitement rare for that early in the morning, with everyone anxiously awaiting the magic moment when the gates would open… 7:50 AM.
It turned out that no one would have to wait that long – when the home improvement store opened, they were none too pleased to see literally half the parking lot filled with winding lines of people, coolers, lawn chairs, folding tables, dogs, etc, and called in the Tampa Bay PD. Cigar City sent out some very friendly ambassadors to assist in the fray and after a bit of confusion and some serious line reformation, Cigar City opened early and the 2nd annual Hunahpu’s Day commenced.
Along with Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, there were 49 other Cigar City beers and dozens of guest beers on tap at various beer stations throughout the Cigar City compound. Some of the guest breweries included Bell’s, Dogfish Head, Founders, Terrapin, The Bruery and Three Floyds. Special and rare beers were in very limited quantities and were all tapped at 1 pm at locations only announced to CCB’s Twitter followers – which was genius because by noon, the brewery grounds were packed, with some waiting in beer lines for up to two hours. Thankfully, Cigar City’s positive policy on bringing in coolers helped alleviate the lines and continued the spirit of generosity.
I caught up with Cigar City’s brewer, Josh Brengle, at the Brew Fest the Saturday before and asked how preparations were going. “Last year, we expected 2,500 and ended up with 5,000. This year, we are planning for 10,000.” From what I have heard, they came very close.
Word on the street is that this may be the last year that Cigar City’s Hunahpu’s Day will be only ONE DAY. With Cigar City’s first brewpub opening soon, the festivities might spread between the two locations next year. And that makes total sense (in a cosmic sort of way) because if Hunahphu is “the sun” and has his own beer, shouldn’t Xbalanque, “the moon,” get his own beer too? And although Xbalanque’s name may not roll off the tongue as easily as Hunahpu does, with Cigar City’s reputation for brewing beers worthy of a pilgrimage, we are pretty sure that the new beer will be welcomed by craft beer fans everywhere, and will hold its own against its hero twin’s version.
