Tag Archives: hernando county

Marker 48 is bringing craft beer to Brooksville

Press release:

Thirsty craft beer fans in Hernando County will soon have a brewery to call their own.
And because of the building’s previous tenant, it will boast a feature not seen too often – if ever – in the sandy soils of Florida: a real underground beer cellar.

This unusual feature is possible because the structure at 12147 Cortez Blvd. housed an auto mechanic shop, and the
1,200-square-foot space below floor level was the “oil-change pit,” where staffers could get underneath the cars to drain fluids and otherwise easily access the undercarriages of customers’ vehicles.

“We are going to turn it into our wood-barrel aging beer cellar,” says Marketing and Sales Manager Tina Ryman. “It’s going to be, hopefully, the perfect climate to age imperials and some really good beers that we have planned for the future.”

Co-owners Tina and Maurice Ryman signed the lease on Feb. 1, 2015, after seeing the potential in the vacant 4,600 square feet with its five overhead bay doors on one of Hernando County’s busiest highways. The Rymans, with the help of friends including future lead brewer John Myers, started the interior demolition of the future brewery, and have ordered a 7-barrel brewing system from Portland, Oregon-based Stout Tanks and Kettles. It is scheduled to be delivered in mid-May. Plans call for five core beers, and five to seven seasonals, specialty and guest beers on tap at all times.

The Rymans, longtime members of the local home brewing community, traveled for years visiting the nation’s breweries, first as fans of tasty handcrafted beers, then with an eye toward gathering ideas for opening their own place back home.

“We love the culture and the people, basically everything about the craft beer industry,” says Maurice, the operations manager.

Having been born and raised in the Hernando County community, Maurice and Tina envision Marker 48 as being a place for visitors and locals to gather and converse over pints of ales that were brewed just a few feet away.
“We don’t want it to be ‘our’ brewery,” Maurice said. “We want it to be the community’s brewery. That’s our No. 1 goal with our customers who walk through the door and with our staff who work here.”
The Rymans plan to have Marker 48 serving brews by mid-summer 2015.

Marker 48 Brewing is a 7-barrel craft brewery in Brooksville, Florida, with a planned opening in mid-summer 2015.

Marker 48 Brewing will be located at 12147 Cortez Boulevard in Brooksville.

Hernando County courting Stone Brewing

When Stone Brewing announced recently that they were looking for a site in the eastern United States to build a new brewery and distribution facility, an unlikely suitor came to the table: Hernando County, Florida.

According to an article in the Hernando Today, Hernando County Administrator Len Sossamon said the county was notified that Stone received the proposal and is considering it.

“In his proposal to lure the company, Sossamon said he played up Hernando County’s low impact fees, lack of a state income tax, accessibility to major highways and great weather.

Hernando County is competing against sites known to be friendly to craft beer like North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. These states have central locations combined with brewery-friendly laws may edge out the small, rural county in Florida- a state where a handful of legislators have recently shown contentiousness towards the state’s craft brewers. North Carolina alone has, in recent years, attracted Sierra Nevada Brewing, New Belgium Brewing, and Oskar Blues Brewery to build new facilities.

County Commissioner Dave Russell said he believes Hernando has an edge over the other states because of the county’s reputation of having a quality water supply.

‘They have terrible water, and we have great water here,’ Russell said. ‘Water is critical to brewing.'”

Russell said the infrastructure already is in place so Stone could set up shop without a long wait.

During the building of the new brewery, Stone plans to hire over 400 people in a facility that would cost over $60 million to build. The new brewery, once up and running to specifics, would produce up to 500,000 barrels of beer.

With papers submitted, the county will wait and see what ferments.

Coney Island Drive Inn pouring craft beer in Hernando County

Coney Island Drive Inn owner Blair Hensley is excited about craft beer. He is so excited about craft beer that when Intuition Ale Works of Jacksonville was looking for a business in Hernando County to host a tap takeover to celebrate the brewery’s expanded distribution, Hensley offered his restaurant, Coney Island Drive Inn. Intuition accepted and brought People’s Pale Ale, John Boat Kolsch, I-10 IPA, and King Street Stout. The turnout was so great that Hensley has decided to host a tap takeover each month and feature a different craft brewery.

The next brewery that Coney Island will feature is Swamp Head Brewery of Gainesville. The Gainesville gang will be bringing Stumpknocker Pale Ale, Wild Night Honey Cream Ale, Gainesville Green Fresh Hop IPA, and Midnight Oil Coffee Stout. The Swamp Head tap takeover will take place on February 27th and will feature a keep-the-pint night also.

While several other establishments serve intermittent craft beer and host sporadic events throughout the year, Coney Island Drive Inn has several craft beers on draft at all times and has committed to hosting craft beer events monthly. Hensley says that he has expressed interest and will hopefully bring tap takeovers from Bell’s Brewing, Lazy Magnolia Brewery, and Cigar City Brewing in the coming months.