It was a fortunate coincidence that I had my recorder handy during August’s Florida Brewers Guild Conference, as both men were in attendance and had some time to sit down and talk about their journeys as brewers and record some of the names of brewers who have come and gone from Florida breweries. Ron and Madison talk about what it was like sharing information between breweries before email and the internet and other differences between their start in brewing and their current state of affairs.
Ron Raike is the brewmaster at Playalinda Brewing Company and Madison Roane is the Vice President of Production at Florida Avenue Brewing Company. The two brewers have each been brewing beer professionally in the Sunshine State since the 1990s and have traveled worked with and worked for many other brewers and breweries in Florida History. Ron began his career brewing in the Orlando area, including a stint at what may have been the first airport brewery that brewed beer onsite at an airport – the Shipyard Brewpub in Orlando International Airport – and has transitioned between several breweries to his present position at Playalinda Brewing. Madison began brewing at McGuire’s Brewpub in Destin and “followed a girl down to Tampa” and worked at Cigar City Brewing for years until transitioning to his current position at Florida Avenue Brewing in Wesley Chapel.
The initial interview was Ron’s idea – except this was before COVID, and it took several years to get both of these guys in the same room. The interview is worth a listen if only for the banter about hard seltzer and milkshake IPAs.
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