Cigar City Brewing Invasion Pale Ale

We've moved to a small town near Tampa, Florida and now have a whole new beer market to explore and write about. The first beer in this new adventure came from the local Tampa brewery, Cigar City Brewing, and was drunk while enjoying the first spring blooms from the pink roses in our flower garden.

Cigar City Web Site: https://cigarcitybrewing.com/beer/invasion-pale-ale/

Cigar City's web site says " Gold in color, Invasion Pale Ale is CCB's rendition of a sessionable hoppy ale. The aroma is quite tropical and offers suggestions of peach, mango, lime and papaya. Upon further exploration, Invasion has a light caramel malt character laced with a slight breadiness and the finish relinquishes a bounty of tropical and citrus hop flavor and bitterness."

Wow, that's quite pretentious for an easy to drink, medium strong (5% alcohol) beer with a pronounced flavor from the hops that dominate the taste, but is toned down somewhat by tropical flavors in the background.  The beer is quite delightful.

The can has a nice story on the back referring to the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest  "The people of Tampa Bay have fallen prey to Pirate invasion every year for well over 100 years. After more than a century of failing to repel these seafaring raiders in their anachronistic wooden ships, despite access to modern sea, land and air arsenals that ostensibly should make short work of wind powered vessels equipped with naught but cast iron cannons and raging scurvy, it occurred to the folks of Cigar City Brewing that if you can't beat them start saying Arrrr Matey! And so we have brewed Invasion Pale Ale, a citrusy and tropical session beer brewed for those long days of marauding, pillaging and pirating. Cheers!"

The Pirate Fest is named for pirate Jose Gaspar, who terrorized the coastal waters of West Florida during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Tampa's annual Gasparilla celebration begins with the Gasparilla Invasion. Over 750 swashbucklers invade Tampa Bay aboard the majestic pirate ship "Jose Gasparilla," kicking off a full schedule of pirate-themed events including a four mile parade of pirates.

It's interesting that the can should say "Drink Fresh! Do not age!" since they don't provide you with the date the beer was canned.  There is a code on the can that reads "S 10 26 A 1 B 6"  I'll ask Cigar City what this means.

4/4/2016 update:  I asked last week but haven't got a reply yet.  Still hoping.