As a general rule, the quality of a dining or drinking establishment is directly proportional to the establishment’s distance from the airport (the rule even extends inside the airport, where quality diminishes the closer you get to the gate). This is a hard-and-fast truth.

Cigar City Brewing, in spitting distance of the Tampa international airport, is an exception to this rule. It’s also an exception to the general notion that Great Beer comes from the East or West and nowhere in between. Cigar City makes world class beers in the South, in a state where beer is sold pale, ice-cold, and 24 hours a day at your local pharmacy. Cigar City beer is more than worth a 45-minute delay sitting on the tarmac.