TAMPA BAY, Fla. — Despite the pandemic, the Tampa Bay area continues to boast one of the most vibrant and active craft beer communities in the nation. Bay News 9’s Brews Dispatch checks in regularly to find out what’s happening with our local breweries, behind the bar and behind the scenes. Got any related news? Let us know.

Tampa’s beloved Cigar City Brewing won big last week in Beer and Brewing’s Best in Beer Reader’s Choice poll. The brewery took fifth place in the Large Breweries category, which the website categorizes as producing between 100,000 and 500,000 barrels per year, while Cigar City’s universally lauded flagship beer, Jai Alai IPA, landed at number eight on the list of the top 50 beers of 2020. Guess the brewery will have to try to find a little more space on an awards shelf already crowded with accolades. As a bonus, in an article on culture and lifestyle website Uproxx titled “Bartenders Tell Us The One American Craft Beer They Love Best,” writer Christopher Osburn took a little space to single out Jai Alai as his personal favorite.

The Tampa Heights Neighborhood continues to add to its food and drink offerings (not to mention its hip quotient) with Magnanimous Brewing, which just opened earlier this month. In-house brews reportedly run the gamut from stouts to sours; the sours sound particularly interesting, though with the seasons changing, something darker and heavier may be what’s tempting one’s palate this time of year. Magnanimous is also teaming up with local food trucks, and is getting a coffee program going with a neighborhood roaster, as well.

On the other side of the bay, Tarpon Springs’ year-old 5 Branches Brewing scored some metal at the 34th Annual Great American Beer Festival, winning a silver medal in the Imperial Stout category for its Doggin Wench stout. 5 Branches also placed in the running in the categories for Very Small Brewing Company of the Year and Very Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year, which celebrate companies cranking out fewer than 1,000 barrels per year.

And finally, this isn’t really local craft beer news, but it is beer news and it’s local: The folks behind well-known Mexican beer brand Modelo (and since 2012, “the folks” would be, you know, Anheuser Busch InBev, that proud Belgian maker of proud American beer) are celebrating the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday with an interactive augmented-reality mural in downtown St. Pete. The mural is located at 556 Central Avenue; beer lovers 21 and older who stop by and use their phones to access a special website can focus in on the mural’s QR code to witness some Dia de los Muertos entertainment, including a skeleton mariachi band. (Or, you could just try it with the image above.)