FLORIDA CRACKER WHITE ALE
If you know me at all, you know that my summer season revolves heavily around two main things: sports and drum corps. With it being prime FIFA Women’s World Cup season, my coworkers and I have been getting really into watching the game together whether at work or at our local soccer bar called Wolff’s Biergarten.
While a few of my coworkers are incredibly talented at playing the Beautiful Game, I unfortunately did not get those skills passed onto me. But when a buddy of mine at work asked me if I wanted to go out on a Saturday afternoon and play some foot golf, I couldn’t resist. Foot golf is exactly what it sounds like — you kick a soccer ball down a special golf course with the goal of getting your ball in a very large hole about the size of a trash can in a certain number of strokes. I’m actually pretty good at golf (a couple of weeks ago, I won a work golf competition. NBD.) so I figured that my skills on the links may be able to make up for the fact that I struggle pretty hard at soccer. I mean, there’s no running, so how hard can it be?
I ended up doing pretty alright, and my group of friends decided to celebrate a successful 18 holes with a beer. I scanned the draft menu and found an interesting prospect!
Beer name: Florida Cracker
Brewery, city, and country of origin: Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, Florida, USA
Brewery Founded: Cigar City Brewing opened its doors in 2009 (!!!), but I’m not exactly sure when this beer was first introduced
Cost: I got a pint for $3.50 at a local bar, but if you can find the cans, you can get a 6-pack for $8.99
Taste: When I first saw the beer, I expected it to be pretty hard-hitting because it was a very cloudy, yellow-orange beer. But upon my first sip… y’all. This beer is out of this world. It was citrusy (mostly orange, lemon, and very slight lime kick), smooth and tangy. It’s a Belgian White Ale, so for me, this beer was not super heavy and very easy to take big sips from (which I wanted to do because DAMN this is good). I checked out the Cigar City Brewing website to check on what they had to say about this beer, and I learned that this beer is brewed “…with unmalted wheat, orange peel and coriander and then ferment it with a Belgian yeast strain to give it a spicy and dry finish.” I couldn’t agree with that description any more.
How Do I Feel? This is straight up one of my new favorite beers. I’m 100% going to be heading back to the bar we went to and getting multiple more pints of this beer because it’s that tasty! I paired my Florida Cracker with bite-sized chimichangas — a spot on pairing. Since this beer has a lot of citrus notes to it, pairing it with something savory is definitely the move.
Poundability: I’d give it a solid 6.5/10 on the poundability scale. I inadvertantly pounded 2/3 of this pint (once again, because it was so good), so it’s definitely doable while not being as easy to pound as, say, a Labatt Blue or something that’s super light.
When To Drink Florida Cracker: The Cigar City produces this beer year-round, but I’d definitely say this beer is most conducive to summer/fall-time drinking. I was enjoying my Florida Cracker on a patio that was basked in summer sunlight, and for me, that was the ultimate setting for enjoying this beer.
Overall: 10/10. It finally happened, y’all. A perfect score from me. That’s how excited I am about this beer. Check out the Cigar City Brewing site and see if there’s a way you can get your hands on a can or pint of this thing, because it truly is that good.
What’s up, #WLTB fam! Thanks for dropping by for another entertaining review. Look forward to a lot more fun stuff from your favorite beer-drinking dynamic duo now that Erin and I are going to be spending a lot more time outside and cracking open some more new beers with our friends and fam. Be sure to click that ‘Clap’ button if you want to let us know we’re doing a good job, and sign up for email alerts so you know each time we post!
If you haven’t already, you can follow us over on Instagram to keep up with our adventures on a daily basis. Feel free to slide into our DMs if you’ve got another life-changing beer that you want us to review. We love hearing from y’all!
Cheers,
Natalie
