Tag Archives: new breweries

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Four Florida breweries open in one weekend

As the rising tide of craft beer swells around the Sunshine State, at no time was the popularity of craft beer more apparent than this past weekend as four craft breweries around the state opened their doors for the first time.

Veterans United Craft Brewery of Jacksonville opened on Friday.

About Veterans United

Veterans United Craft Brewery is a small, independent, craft brewery focused on producing high quality American & European style ales.

Orchid Island Brewery of Vero Beach opened Saturday.

About Orchid Island

OIBC is a 3bbl artisan brewery. Great care is put into our recipe designs to provide a unique twist on trendy styles using local Indian River citrus. We look towards the history of Vero Beach in creating beer recipes.

First Magnitude Brewing Company of Gainesville opened Saturday.

About First Magnitude

First Magnitude is a new brewery in Gainesville, FL. We are a full production brewery and tasting room. Come by and try a pint!

Ulele Native Inspired Food and Spirits soft opened with a grand opening on Tuesday.

About Ulele

Ulele, featuring native-inspired foods and spirits, will open on Aug. 26 in the lovingly re-imagined 1903 Tampa Heights Water Works building. It anchors the north end of the Tampa Riverwalk, 400 yards from the Straz Center.

Congratulations to all of these breweries and their achievements!

Florida Beer News logo

Big Beer Bill threatens community breweries

In light of the progress being made by the growler bill (shhhhh, don’t jinx it!), it was only a matter of time before an inflammatory bill was introduced that would threaten Florida’s small breweries.

That strange and outlandish bill came via the office of Representative Ray Wesley Rodrigues of Fort Myers on Monday. To make more sense of this bill, our friend Ross of Komlossy Law in Hollywood, Florida has written a new blog discussing the few ups and the major downs of this new bill.

This bill will have a major impact on:

1. Tasting rooms, and a brewery’s ability to sell to the public.
2. A brewery’s ability to exist without a distributor.
3. A brewery’s ability to have guest taps.
4. A brewery’s ability to pour their own collaboration beers.

In short, this bill will have a major impact on many areas that have made Florida’s breweries what they are–collaborative spirit, helping to promote each other, and tasting rooms.

While existing breweries might be grandfathered in, Florida is on the verge of dozens of breweries trying to come into existence, and this bill would definitely impact them.

Please contact your state representative and senator and please urge him or her NOT TO SUPPORT House Bill 1329.

For more information, please see Ross’s blog, or research this bill.

Veterans United Brewery logo

Jacksonville’s two new breweries-to-be

Lots has been buzzing up in the Bold New City. Jacksonville is getting two new craft breweries in the coming months, and that is not including Engine 15 and Intuition Ale Works looking to open production breweries.

Veterans United:

According to the Jacksonville Daily Record, Navy veteran Ron Gamble is building a $1 million brewery in the Bay Meadows area of Jacksonville into a 10,000 square foot craft brewery. Gamble christened the brewery “Veterans United Craft Brewery,” an homage to his service to the country.

The brewery is located at 8999 Western Way, off of I-95 in Bay Meadows, an area chosen because it is not served by many existing breweries like San Marcos or Jacksonville Beach.

Gamble, a graduate of the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology, plans to be open in May of 2014.

Zeta:

According to an article in Brown Distributing’s newsletter, Zeta, a bar and restaurant in Jacksonville Beach plans to open a seven-barrel brewery and begin brewing by the end of March.

Brewer Chris Prevatt is an alumnus of Siebel Brewing Institute has plans to create a core group of beers, then eventually a group of lagers. Zeta’s beers will be served onsite only at first then move to distribution. Prevatt has high hopes for his India pale ale, rye pale, chocolate coffee stout, honey brown ale at Zeta.

Zeta is located at 131 First Avenue North in Jacksonville Beach.

New Year, New Breweries tour with The Brew Bus Tampa

Sponsored Post:

New year? New breweries!

Tampa Bay Brew Bus will kick off the new year by touring some of the newest breweries in the Tampa Bay Area. The Brew Bus has announced plans for a tour of Saint Petersburg’s newest addition: 3 Daughters Brewing, then Clearwater’s brewing sensation: Pair O Dice Brewing, along with lunch at the Gulfport standard: Peg’s Cantina.

Each stop includes a complimentary pint of beer, a tour of the facility, and Brew Bus Brewing beer on the bus ride. Lunch at Peg’s comes with the ticket price as well.

For more information and to book tickets, visit Tampa Bay Brew Bus online.

Coppertail Brewing and Green Bench Brewing collaborate

While nothing is certain in this life, it is a pretty safe bet that brewing beer in Florida’s endless summer can cause thirst. All the heat of boiling and mashing combined with a lack of air conditioning makes sweat drip like the mighty Mississippi. The kind folks from Green Bench Brewing of Saint Petersburg and Coppertail Brewing of Tampa have announced that they are collaborating on a beer at Green Bench. No details yet, but they have posted a photo of the brewers enjoying ice cold Capri Suns as they brew.

Green Bench opened for business this week and also announced details of their Grand Opening Celebration. Green Bench’s brewer Khristopher Johnson has announced that he has brewed five collaboration beers with breweries around the state to be poured at some point after Green Bench opens.

Coppertail Brewing is looking at a launch in the opening months of 2014 at their production brewery near IKEA in Ybor City. They have collaborated with Oxbow Brewing of Maine to produce their first beer, and have poured at several festivals around Tampa.

More information on the details of the beer made by these two rising stars of Florida Craft Beer as it becomes available.