South Florida Beer Week 2015

For the fourth consecutive year, South Florida Beer Week 2015 is around the corner.  Beginning January 17^th, local breweries from all over Florida will be featured at establishments and events from Jupiter down to Miami.  Each day brings you all sorts of entertainment and tasting opportunities.

Please continue to check back as events will be announced soon. 

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round - SOLD OUT

We are pleased to announce that Kicking off South Florida Beer Week, The South Florida Beer Bus, will be taking craft beer lovers safely from Brewery to Brewery. The bus will start-off meeting at Funky Buddha Lounge and brewery where everyone will join up, hop on and hit the road at 1pm. 


Here's the schedule:


            

1. 1st Stop 2:00/2:15pm: Tequesta Brewing Company (287 S. US Highway 1, Tequesta, Florida) 

2. 2nd Stop 3:30pm: Due South Brewing (2900 High Ridge Rd. #3, Boynton Beach, Florida 33426)

3. 3rd Stop 5:00pm: Brewzzi (2222 Glades Road  Boca Raton, FL 33431)

4. 6:00pm - Drop back off at Funky Buddha Lounge (2621 North Federal Highway Boca Raton, FL 33431).... Giving us about an hour at each location and finishing off with an evening at the Funky Buddha lounge.




Each location will be serving up some special deals (and maybe some special tappings) for the bus riders brave enough to join us (More details TBA). There will also be some special guests on the Beer Bus to (you've guessed it) talk beer.


If folks would like to come out and meet the bus at a single stop, all locations are also open to the public. For more information and to book your spot visit: http://soflabeerbus.eventbrite.com

TICKETS WILL GO ON-SALE THIS FRIDAY 12/21 at 8:00am (As long as the world doesn't come to an end). We are limited to only 48 seats, so we recommend you book early...first come, first serve

More Florida Brewers: Green Room Brewing On-Board

We are happy to announce that we have another great Florida Brewer on-board, showing their support for South Florida Beer Week. We are excited to be featuring Green Room Brewing out of Jacksonville, FL during next week's festivities.

We know you may not have had a chance to explore what this Florida Brewer has to offer so we took a moment to Talk with Eric Luman, Founder and Brewmaster to give a quick synopsis of what's in store.

SFBW: What do you want South Florida to know about your brewery?


Eric Luman: We are located in Jax Beach, 2 blocks off the beach. We're a small family owned operation. We have really gone for that laid back beach vibe with our beers and our tap room mimics this, without being tacky. This will be the first time our beers will be available outside of the Jacksonville area (aside from beer festivals).

Anything you want to let people know about the beers that will be offered during that week?


Our Head High IPA is our flagship, our most prominent seller in our tap room and will be seen most around Jacksonville. It has a bunch of those citrusy, orange and grapefruit flavors and aromas that reference the citrus in Florida.

Helles Yeah is an approachable American take on the Munich Helles Lager. It's brewed with American grown German hops, American grown pilsner malt and a German lager yeast.

Under Toe Barleywine is a Florida version of an American barleywine. It's brewed with 30% orange blossom honey, locally sourced. It's light and more citrusy than a normal barleywine but still with a 9% [ABV] kick.

Why do you think drinking local is important?


It's been a big movement in food so why not with beer? By supporting local you are bettering the environment  and cutting costs with less fuel and you have fresh product. Of course, it also helps to create jobs and supports the local economy.

To learn more about Green Room visit their website and/or facebook. We can't wait to get some of these Jax Beach Beers down for everybody to try. Make sure to stop in at the Jupiter Craft Brewers Fest to meet Eric and talk to him about this up and coming Florida Brewery. 

Announcement: Swamp Head Brewery to Join South Florida Beer Week

Well, the week is creeping up and we are drinking a lot of water, meditating, and getting our minds and bodies ready for some great beers which will be flowing throughout South Florida. As we are sure you've noticed, we keep referencing these "special beers" brought to you by Florida Brewers... well we are happy to announce that Swamp Head Brewery out of Gainesville, Florida has allowed us to feature a few of their beers at some South Florida Beer Week events. This is the first time that Swamp Head beers will be available in South Florida publicly, and we're damn proud that the brewery will be making this debut during Beer Week (and for now, this week only).

The following events will have Swamp Head beers on tap:

Brew Insight: Q&A With Justin Clark of Cigar City Brewing

Cigar City's Justin Clark.

Happy New Year, everyone! South Florida Beer Week is fast approaching, and we've got some exciting beers that will be on tap from local brewers. Stay tuned for more on that, as we'll be announcing some tap lists at the end of this week. Needless to say, we're super excited to be featuring a slew of local beer during Beer Week, including a few breweries that have yet to be tapped in the South Florida market.

But of course, you can't talk local beer without mentioning Cigar City Brewing out of Tampa, FL. Perhaps the most buzzed about craft brewery in Florida, Cigar City has made a name for itself nationally thanks to innovative new beers aimed squarely at the beer geek in all of us. That's to say nothing for it's flagship beers -- Maduro and Jai Alai chief among them -- that are quickly becoming go-to favorites for folks across the state. Add to that a slew of recent announcement from the brewery, and Cigar City is quickly becoming one of the most talked about breweries in the southeastern United States.

In preparation for Cigar City's big splash during Beer Week, we spoke to Vice President Justin Clark, who told us a little bit about the brewery's upcoming plans.

Brew Insight: Q&A With Bob Gordash, Founder of Holy Mackerel Beers

Above: Bob Gordash of Holy Mackerel
stirs a batch of his award-winning brew.

Part of what makes local craft beer special is the stories -- the tales of spirit and passion that drive people to turn this obsession (read: beer!) into a career. So each week on the South Florida Beer Week Blog, we're going to try to give you a little glimpse into those stories by talking with the people behind the beer.

For this first Brew Insight column, we caught a big one: Bob Gordash, founder of Holy Mackerel Beers (née Gordash Brewing). Based in Fort Lauderdale, FL and brewed out of Greenville, South Carolina, Holy Mackerel is known for its compact but ultra-potent line up of Belgian-inspired ales. It's Special Golden Ale is highly drinkable, even at 8.5% alcohol by volume, while it's Mack in Black imperial stout is a beast of a beer with layers of tart pomegranate and chocolate malt. Holy Mackerel's latest brew doesn't relent either -- Panic Attack strong ale, released in 2010, clocks in at a whopping 10%. Talk about big boys.

Still thirsty? We wrangled Mr. Gordash into a little Q&A session to tell us more about his past as a brewer and the foundation of his company, and give us his thoughts on the Florida craft beer scene.

SFBW: Hey Bob! Tell us what Holy Mackerel Beers is all about.

Redesign!

Welcome all beer lovers, geeks, fanatics, and aficionados -- we're proud to unveil the all new SFBW site! We've got a lot in the works in the coming month getting ready for a week of all-local, all-Florida beer events culminating in the Jupiter Craft Brewers Festival at Roger Dean Stadium on January 28.

Perhaps this is your first time seeing the page; and that's cool. We wanted to create something we felt resonated with South Florida and spoke to our goal -- enjoying fantastic Florida craft beer! The logo you see to your left is part of that. This year, we decided to pay homage to perhaps South Florida's most important and iconic artistic style, art deco, by creating an "Art Deco Bottle" to represent our campaign. The bottle doubles as a building towering above one of those gorgeous Florida sunsets we love so much, replete with "bubble" lit windows and barley grain embellishments. It will be gracing posters all over SoFla in the coming weeks, so look out for that!

In short, now that we've got the page up and running, expect updates on all our beer events as we finalize them, which should be very soon. So stay tuned, folks. Cheers!

What is South Florida Beer Week?

Well we know you haven't seen it before because it's the first year...you must be asking yourself, "What's this all about?" Well for the first year we are helping to honor South Florida's Beer Community, Craft Brewers and Craft Beer Lovers with a week devoted to all things Florida Beer all culminating in the biggest and best beer festival in Florida, The Jupiter Craft Brewers Fest. All together, South Florida's Beer Community is working to bring you a week full of different events aimed at showing what South Florida Beer is all about. Stay tuned for more details on whats going on and try to come out and help celebrate. Cheers!