It’s Florida. We tend to get a lot of beers named after fish here. Such is the case with the Spotted Sunfish.
It’s small, it lives in freshwater, and it’s particularly aggressive. It’s cranky enough to fool some fishermen into thinking they’ve accidentally hooked onto a tree stump by accident. That is why the fish has the interesting nickname of Stump Knocker (Pale Ale, 5.6% ABV, 42 IBU).
Man Day!
Yes, 26 Degree Brewing in Pompano Beach made their own holiday, right before Father’s Day. And, according to co-owner/co-founder Greg Lieberman, why not?
It’s pretty perfect. There’s video games, cigars, sports on the TVs, wings from Tilted Kilt, and beer (obviously). Greg was there to give us a quick rundown of the event and to show us around their 21,000 sq. ft. facility. It used to be a Winn-Dixie; use that for a sense of scale.
I’m a sucker for a good, classically brewed Irish Stout. It’s jsut a little problematic since every brewery that makes one tends to make it only for St. Patrick’s Day, deplete their small batch as soon as possible, then go back to whatever overly hopped blonde ale is popular this month.
Keep them on tap, please. Bone Hook Brewing did. And I got a nice, full crowler of Isle Be Black (Stout, 5.25% ABV) because of it, too.
Basically, there are two kinds of brewery tours that I have been on: the basic ‘here’s how we make beer’ tour, and the ‘you know all the basics already, let’s talk about details’ tour.
Luckily for me, I got the latter on my latest visit to Coppertail Brewing. At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m somewhat familiar with the basics.
I got quite the tour, too, especially as Coppertail enters such a big time in its history.
Bradenton is so close that I feel fortunate, yet so far away that it’s frustrating. I am lucky in that it’s close enough to where I can get beers from one of my favorite Gulf Coast breweries, Darwin Brewing Co.
The interesting thing about it is that Darwin has signed an exclusivity deal with Lucky’s Markets around the state to release the Big Deal series. The first two have been released, and while I can still find the Chocolate Cherry Stout, I never found the DIPA at the Lucky’s by me.
The third beer in the Big Deal series, Big Deal Lager (Helles Lager, 4.2% ABV) is coming soon and in 6-packs this time!
Sounds like a kid’s game, doesn’t it?
Redlight Redlight is a popular and influential craft beer emporium in Orlando, maybe 5 or so minutes from Downtown. going is a pilgrimage for Central Florida beer drinkers, as Redlight takes pride in an absolutely killer lineup of bottles and regularly rotating taps.
They made a dunkelweizen. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.
No one makes dunkelweizens on a regular basis in this state. And it’s my favorite style of beer, which makes me sad. But lo and behold, Lauderale in Ft. Lauderale had Dunkelfunken (Dunkelweizen, 6% ABV) right there on tap.
I have sort of a complicated relationship with red ales.
You get some that are insanely hoppy, as if the brewer decided to forego logic and determine that when you pronounce Amber Ale, the IPA is merely a silent, yet integral, piece of the experience. Then there are some that are so caramel-laden that the can should probably say Brachs on the side.
