Hello BrewSounders,
This post today might be old news already to some beer advocates, but Florida's best brewery Cigar City Brewing is facing a serious problem from the City of Tampa Council. In a recent vote that would have cinched up CCB's wet-zoning permanently, which gives the brewery the right to serve alcohol, host special tasting events and sell their own beer at the brewery, the city council voted 3-3. That means the vote did not pass, which means that Cigar City must now have a majority vote on the next two votes for the wet-zoning to become permanent. If they do not get these votes the brewery will have to close down their tasting room by December 16th. One member of the council failed to show for the vote, potentially causing the 3-3 tie.
Below I have linked the contact info for each of the council members. Please take the time to write the council members who voted in favor of the wet-zoning becoming permanent and thank them for their understanding of the importance of this tasting room to this local business.
Also, please write the members who voted against the wet-zoning. Plea to them to please understand that to continue to vote against this zoning will cost people their jobs, cause the brewery to lose the valuable ability to sell their own product on location, and will be a loss for the city of Tampa.
And most importantly please write the council member who was absent for the vote. Help him understand the importance of his vote in this matter.
Do be respectful. Do be sincere. Please don't write to them with some rant because that will accomplish nothing.
Thank you all for reading BrewSounds and thanks to all who take the time to write or call the Tampa City council members.
Council Members Against Passing Wet-Zoning
Council Members For Passing Wet-Zoning
Council Member Absent For Vote
Some points to make in your statements to the council
- Never have their been police called to the brewery for any reason. This is not a bar. This is a tasting room of which its clientele are people who are passionate about craft beer and are not there to party. It is not a bar. It is a tasting room.
- CCB has never had a violation of any kind since its inception over two years ago.
- In that two years CCB has gone from 2 employees to 22 employees. In a time of economic crisis that is no small contribution to the Tampa community.
- CCB has put Florida on the map as a beer lovers destination. Any who are craft beer lovers who read blogs or follow beer websites know that people travel from all over the country to visit CCB's tasting room for one-off brews and to tour the facility.
- Besides the totally screwed up laws on distribution in Florida which take a heavy toll on all Florida breweries, taking away CCB's ability to sell their liquid awesomeness on site and host totally awesome events that are often involving other breweries and people from other parts of the country would be devastating to the viability of CCB.
