Tag Archives: gainesville

First Magnitude Brewing Logo

First Magnitude Brewing opening soon

This weekend, Gainesville will gain another craft brewery. First Magnitude Brewing Company has posted an opening date with more details to follow.

From Facebook:

After much hard work, planning, and brewing, First Magnitude will officially open its doors this Saturday August 23rd from 2 to 9 and Sunday from 2 to 7… stay tuned for more updates and details (including directions) throughout the week!

First Magnitude Brewing is the labor of love for four friends who decided to branch out into the world of commercial brewing. According to an article in the Gainesville Business Report, the four founders, Meg and Wells The Losen with Christine and John Denny have all made the leap into the beer business with the latter two quitting their day jobs to become full-time brewery employees. Denny, the brewer, has over 20 years of homebrewing experience under his belt and is joined by Eric Dreyer, a food scientist from the University of Florida Tasting Lab. In naming their new brewery, the friends wanted a name that would be recognizable to locals but not obvious. The brewery is then named for a first magnitude spring, the largest type of spring which discharges at least 65 million gallons of water per day, (fun fact: there are 33 first magnitude springs in Florida).

First Magnitude Brewing is located at 1120 Southeast Veitch Street in Gainesville.

Hogtown Craft Beer Festival returns April 5th

Gainesville’s craft beer festival, Hogtown Craft Beer Fest, is returning this year on April 5th at Kanapaha Gardens in Gainesville.

Local breweries the likes of Swamp Head, Copp, Cigar City, Engine 15, Green Bench, Green Room, Intuition, Ormond, Persimmon Hollow, Pensacola Bay, Rock Brothers, Three Palms, and Brew Bus Brewing will all be pouring at the festival in addition to larger regional breweries like Terrapin and Sweetwater, combined with national breweries Blue Moon, Anchor, New Belgium, Stone, and more.

For more information, visit the Hogtown Craft Beer Festival website.

Swamp Head Brewery Logo

Swamp Head to build new brewery

Press Release:

Gainesville– Scherer Construction of North Florida, a leading Design/Build, Construction Management, and General Contracting firm, announced today that they have been contracted to design and build a new brewery and tasting room for Swamp Head Brewery in southwest Gainesville.

The project involves new construction of a 13,300 S.F. building on a 5-acre site located off of SW 42 Ave. near the Alley Katz Lanes bowling alley. The new building will include a full brewery, canning, warehouse, offices, and tasting room with a large outdoor deck. The site also alleviates the parking issues of their previous location and has ample room for future growth. The expanded new location will increase and streamline their production capacity, including canning. The project is currently in the design phase with construction starting by April 2014 and a scheduled completion of September 2014.

Scherer Construction is proud to partner with Swamp Head Brewery, Gainesville’s craft brewer since 2009, focused on brews that are inherently Floridian. Their staple beers include: Wild Night honey cream ale, Cottonmouth Belgian wheat bier, Stump Knocker American pale ale, Midnight Oil oatmeal coffee stout, and Big Nose American IPA. They also brew their award winning Migrational, Spasmodic, and Elusive Recluse series. Some of their creations are now being canned for wider distribution. To learn more about Swamp Head, please visit: www.swamphead.com

Scherer Construction of North Florida, LLC is a 30-year old Design/Build, Construction Management, and General Contracting firm founded in 1984 in St. Petersburg, FL and headquartered in Gainesville, FL since 1991. The company’s projects span many commercial divisions including retail, industrial, aviation, religious, institutional, financial, office, health, non-profit, hotel and unique segments. Over 90% of Scherer’s business is referred or repeat from current clients. Scherer differentiates itself on integrity, experience, and the ability to self-perform many sub-contracted trades, such as sitework and concrete. To learn more, please visit: www.schererconstruction.com

Swamp Head Brewery Logo

Florida/ Georgia rivalry arrives in liquid form

For all of the football fans of both the University of Florida and the University of Georgia, the rivalry dates back as long as they can remember. Every year, the football game for these two southern states must be played on neutral ground in Jacksonville, half(ish) way between the two colleges. The rivalry is bitter, it divides friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters, and work colleagues alike, if only for one Saturday each year. While many beers are undoubtedly consumed in the wake of the UF/ UGA Football Game, now the rivalry has crossed the lines and united brewers from each city.

Now the craft breweries of both college towns, Athens, Georgia and Gainesville, Florida have put their beer in place of words and brewed a beer using local ingredients from both UGA’s home and UF’s home. Spike Buckowski, Terrapin’s Head Brewer, stepped into friendly enemy territory all the way to Gainesville to brew this beer with Swamp Head Brewery. This beer will be an English Bitter dubbed “Bitter Rivalry” and will be released in Jacksonville when the Gators and Bulldogs meet on November 2nd for this year’s installment of their rivalry. No word yet on distribution for the beer or further details.