Cigar City Brewing's flagship India Pale Ale. Tampa craft beer's calling card since 2009, with citrus-forward hops and a 7.5% ABV.

Jai Alai IPA launched in 2009 from Cigar City Brewing's West Spruce Street brewery. The beer is named after the Basque-Cuban handball sport that ran at Tampa's Jai Alai fronton from 1953 until 1998. Founder Joey Redner built Cigar City around Florida-themed beers; Jai Alai became the flagship and is now distributed across Florida and the eastern US. The taproom at 3924 W Spruce pours fresh Jai Alai plus the variants (Black Magick, Florida Man, Hunahpu's Imperial Stout).

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Make it at home

Serves 5720 hrAdvanced

Ingredients

  • 5kg American 2-row malt
  • 500g Munich malt
  • 500g crystal malt (40L)
  • 30g Magnum hops (60-minute boil)
  • 60g Centennial hops (15-minute boil)
  • 60g Cascade hops (5-minute boil)
  • 60g Citra hops (dry hop)
  • 60g Simcoe hops (dry hop)
  • 1 packet American IPA dry yeast (US-05 or similar)
  • 20 liters filtered brewing water

Method

  1. Mash crushed grains in 13 liters of water at 66C for 60 minutes.
  2. Sparge with 8 liters of water at 75C to collect 22 liters of wort.
  3. Boil wort 60 minutes total. Add Magnum at the start, Centennial at 45 minutes (15 minutes from end), Cascade at 55 minutes (5 minutes from end).
  4. Cool wort to 18C. Transfer to fermenter, leaving sediment behind. Pitch yeast.
  5. Ferment at 18-20C for 7 days.
  6. Add Citra and Simcoe dry hops directly to the fermenter. Dry hop 4-5 days.
  7. Transfer to a keg or bottles with priming sugar. Carbonate 2 weeks.
  8. Serve at 4C in a tulip glass. Best fresh, within 2 months of brewing.

Editor tip. Homebrewing an IPA at Cigar City scale is hard; the official Jai Alai recipe is proprietary. This is a citrus-forward approximation. Visit the Spruce Street taproom for the real thing.

Common allergens: Gluten.