So we are going to go in on a big dessert porter today. And we’re going in on a completely different avenue than how I expected, courtesy of Hop Life Brewing in Port St. Lucie.
I feel like it’s sort of antithetical to talk about a brewery in Port St. Lucie without talking about A) the relative lack of craft beer on the Treasure Coast, B) Hop Life and their owners being former firefighters, or C) their incredible proximity to the New York Mets spring training stadium.
I am lucky that I have been to both Momentum’s old tap room and their new tap room, both in Bonita Beach. It’s interesting that entire facility they left was the same size as just the tap room space of their new digs, and their new production floor is double that space.
In short, they have all the space they need to make even more of their awesome beers. I came by there a few weeks ago to interview owner Brian Hahn for the Florida Beer Podcast (which should be up soon, by the way), and I did get to grab a few crowlers for the road. One of those was their house IPA, Instinct (IPA, 6% ABV, 40 IBU).
It has been more than a couple of months since the word Floridaweisse has graced the pages of this blog, and maybe now is a good time to bring it up again, since I am very fond of that particular style.
I’ve had a few events happen recently where I have had to summarize and promote Florida craft beer, and I really do believe, as others do as well, that the Floridaweisse is something that is uniquely suited to the state of Florida.
Treatments are odd things.
Usually, you’ll see a treatment be a lighter beer that was infused with some sort of a fruit adjunct, or a darker beer that was aged in some sort of a liquor barrel for 6 months up to a year.
Rarely do the two meet, and rarely do I see them stray from their traditional treatment upgrades. Well, Barrel of Monks in Boca surprised me a little.
I had intended this article to talk about grapes, but instead it looks like we are talking about Disney.
I recently opened my bottle of Mr. Tom’s Muscadine Saison, one of the gorgeous Farmhouse options that come from Hourglass Brewing in Longwood. I am a big fan of the muscadine grape, as it’s pretty much the only grape that will grow in the state of Florida. If you’ve ever had wine from San Sebastian or its sister winery Lakeridge in Clermont, those are predominantly Muscadine.
I have an almost unhealthy love for the old-time tourism postcards that flooded the United States in the early 1900’s. You know the kind, the ones that say “Greetings From” and then have the name of the city or state along with images in each letter?
I love those. And I have to give a big shout out to Central 28 for their newest can release of Sunshine Greetings (Pale Wheat Ale, 4.7% ABV, 10 IBU), taking this iconography and building a gorgeous can and fantastic beer around it.
It’s something I haven’t really mentioned a lot, especially since I’m not too terribly versed in it, but yes, Florida is pretty much the birthplace of NASCAR.
If you’ve never seen Daytona International Speedway up close, the size of it is just staggering. It’s monumental in a way that I’ve only seen in some statues in Asia dedicated to Genghis Khan. The funiest thing of all is that there is a full-size Cracker Barrel sitting in the middle of the parking lot, and around it is not so much parking and parking garages and transportation, but your standard everyday suburban sprawl.
Crazy Uncle Mike’s in Boca Raton is, for lack of a better term, a lot. The space has been around since the seventies, I believe, with a rotating list of restaurants that had the same theme, same menu, and ultimately shared the same fate.
