Saint Petersburg- 3 Daughters Brewing has scaled the mountain and has nailed down an opening date. On that date, owner Mike Harting, his staff, and his family will take up the mantle of Florida’s newest craft brewery. For Harting, this brewery is the realization of a lot of hard work, a lot of fun, and a piece of his family’s legacy.
3 Daughters Brewing has come a long way from inception to brewery, but the story begins in the kitchen of the restaurant Harting co-owns, Bella Brava Trattoria in Saint Petersburg.
In fact, the idea for 3 Daughters Brewing sprang from something as simple as fish batter. At that time, Mike Harting was talking to one of his chefs, Ty Weaver, and they were discussing the possibility of brewing their own house beer for beer-battered fish. That conversation led to brewing beer for on-site sales at Bella Brava at the only time when the kitchen was available for brewing: 2am. So it began, from 2am until 7am Weaver and a loyal brigade of Bella Brava staff brewers took to the kitchen to make beer for the restaurant. At first, staff was brewing once each month, then once a week, then twice a week. Before long, Harting noticed that the beer was more than 30% of Bella Brava’s beer sales.
After seeing how well Weaver’s beers were selling, Harting decided to double down on beer for the restaurant and invite the rest of Tampa Bay to enjoy his beer as well. Harting gathered together investors and shared his vision of 3 Daughters Brewing, or 3DB. Harting quickly raised capital locally to begin his brewery and tapped into a warehouse space on 22nd Avenue in Saint Petersburg to raise his nascent brewery. In its past life, the brewery building made large pipes, some of which are still on display in the parking lot. After construction, 3DB now has 30-barrel brewhouse with a 1-barrel pilot system for test batches. Harting has plans for expansion: he foresees the addition of a canning line in the next year and has room to grow in the existing brewery space.
Mike sees the brewery as an opportunity to make great beer, but also a chance to commune with his brewing roots. Harting comes from a brewing family, of sorts. Mike’s great-grandfather built Harting and Luigart Malt Mill, a brewery in Lexington, Kentucky. While the brewery is no longer in operation, the Kentucky building has been restored and before opening 3 Daughters Brewing, Harting went up to Lexington and removed a brick from the old building and transported it to Florida– a transfusion from one Harting brewing operation to the next.
3 Daughters has plans for three core beers and several other rotating and specialty beers in their bag of tricks. 3 Daughters core beers will focus on beers that fix Florida Saturdays, that is, beers that are not terribly high in alcohol, are drinkable yet not overwhelming, and are big on flavors that compliment endless summer. This lineup begins with Beach Blonde Ale, a light and refreshing blonde; followed by Dunkel Weiss, a German dark wheat beer; finished by an Oatmeal Stout, a stout aimed at stout drinkers that, like Mike, do not care for bitter-finishing stouts. Accompanying the starting lineup will be rotating beers like a malty Irish Red, a cocoa and earthy English Brown, an approachable Pale Ale, a Kolsch, and the bruiser of the bunch, a 9.6% Imperial Stout. In total, 3DB has twleve recipes that are ready for prime time and will enter rotation soon enough, including Bourbon Barrel Porter, a favorite from the 97X craft beer event, one that Harting would like to see released in bottles several times each year.
3 Daughters is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, but they have announced opening day as 14 December 2013, where they plan to have seven of their beers on draft to mark the occasion. While it has been a long journey from inception to opening, Harting says has been “so much fun, it’s ridiculous.” How much fun? Well, Harting has not missed the chance to include his sense of fun in the brewery– the brewery’s steam system is powered “like a locomotive.” Harting then asked if they could install a steam whistle like a train would have. He got his wish and now every time 3 Daughters brews beer, they can pull the whistle to let the town know that great beer is steaming its way to them.
