I am a sucker for theming. Chalk it up to a childhood lived in Orlando, but if you can give me fake spaceship or demolished wasteland or tropical garden and make it actually look good, I am all in. It’s dumb, but I love it.
And of all the breweries in Florida to decide to go this route, Legacy Caribbean Craft Brewery might be the most surprising.
It is still tucked away in a tiny industrial park across from Opa-locka Airport, but once you walk inside you are immediately greeted with the unmistakable image of a gorgeous Caribbean hacienda.
Really, they even did that roof on the structure inside another building trick that I kind of love.
The only thing that separates them from a chain like Bahama Breeze is authenticity. It really feels like they’re doing this because this is just what they know from how they’ve grown up. That’s why there are quality rum bottles, not the mass marketed stuff. There’s flags from the countries the connect with them, not a random selection pulled off the internet.
Most importantly, the beers on tap were all pulled from three generations of brewing experience that began in the Dominican Republic.
We were there to record an interview with founder and brewmaster Ismael Fernandez for the Florida Beer Podcast. Producer Steve, at my insistence, went for the Mulato Dominican Porter, which is one of the best dark beers in South Florida.
I was starting to fade a bit, and I’m a sucker for a cream ale, so I ended up killing the keg of Clubhouse (Cream Ale, 4.7% ABV).
Ismael told me this beer features both corn and rice adjuncts, necessary ingredients for a proper cream ale. And interestingly enough, this beer doubles down on the sweetness a little bit. Whereas other cream ales try to be unassuming and soft, this one had a very solid and pointed sugar pop-like quality to it.
I’m not sure which adjunct this came from, or if this was from the malted barley, but it really popped quite nicely. It had a wonderfully light body, and almost no hoppiness speak up, all the proper hallmarks of a well-crafted cream ale.
It’s what I’ve come to expect from Legacy, the one of the best breweries in Miami-Dade County. It’s almost a shame more people don’t know about them. But I do, I’m a big fan, and I even got a few cans for the road which I will be more than happy to put up on future blog posts.
In the meantime, I’m going to forgo artificial artificial Caribbean and get my authentic artificial Caribbean directly from the source.
As Ismael loves to post, wepaaa!
Drink Florida Craft,
Dave
@floridabeerblog
floridabeerblog@gmail.com
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