Breweries to visit near Tampa, FL

Hi all,

Going to be in Ocala and Tampa FL for a few weeks this summer visiting family. Anyone know of any good breweries to hit while I'm down there?

I found this link but the only one I know is good is Cigar City.. What about the others? http://voices.yahoo.com/craft-breweries-tampa-bay-unique-economical-family-11149772.html

Suggestions and comments are welcome!

Cigar City is where its at. Do a tour for $5 and you get a pint of beer and the glass. Then hang out in the taproom for a while. I was there in November before they built (or are currently building/planning) their new taproom. Not sure if its done yet, but we had a great time.

Tampa Bay is ok. Its a brew pub and a good place to grab a burger and some beers.

Thats my 2 cents

yes the new taproom @ cc is done. i highly suggest dunedin brewery aswell, and being as how 7th sun brewery is around the corner from them (hell why not). you should also check out southern brewing-... they are an excellent homebrew supply and functioning brewery! tampa bay brewing company is one of my personal favorites. big storm is another local brewery that has some good american ales. i've yet to go to st. somewhere or the yuengling brewery unfrotunately. i keep hearing about peg's cantina but have yet to go. mr. dunderbak's is not a brewery but does have an excellent beer selection and really caters to beer geeks (they also host the homebrew meetings)! let me know if you need any further info.

01steve said:

yes the new taproom @ cc is done. i highly suggest dunedin brewery aswell, and being as how 7th sun brewery is around the corner from them (hell why not). you should also check out southern brewing-... they are an excellent homebrew supply and functioning brewery! tampa bay brewing company is one of my personal favorites. big storm is another local brewery that has some good american ales. i've yet to go to st. somewhere or the yuengling brewery unfrotunately. i keep hearing about peg's cantina but have yet to go. mr. dunderbak's is not a brewery but does have an excellent beer selection and really caters to beer geeks (they also host the homebrew meetings)! let me know if you need any further info.

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Mr. Dunderbak's? I'll toss that one in the search engines. Thanks!

So I found an outlet with 3 CCB beers- the jai alai IPA, the brown and a wit? (Maybe). I bought the ipa and it is pretty darn tasty. Very simple, great hop nose and flavor... A very mild backbone... Would have liked a more robust backbone. But i WILL buy again. I'll try the brown next.

Jai Alai is their house IPA. It's good when it's fresh. Maduro is their house brown ale and it has tobacco notes, great with a steak or a smoke after a meal. Kinda unique. The Florida Cracker is their house wit, and IMHO their most boring beer.

Visit CCB's tap room. They usually have +/- 50 beers on tap at any given time, including their in house pilot beers, collaboration beers and some rares. They don't serve food, but there is usually a food truck outside on the weekends. They also have a new restaurant located on north Dale Mabry that's pretty good, but the beer selection at the tap room is vastly better. Dunedin and 7th Sun are located right next to each other and are both worth checking out, too. Dunedin is a brew pub, so get something to eat while you're there.

A much shorter drive North from Ocala is the college town of Gainesville, and Swamp Head brewing. They have some pretty decent beers and they're worth checking out.

If you're willing to drive an hour and a half northeast of Ocala, you'll be in Jacksonville. There's some really great beer in this town and we have more than five up-and-coming full scale breweries, not just brew pubs. The best ones to check out are Intuition Ale Works, Pinglehead Brewing, Green Room Brewing, Bold City Brewing and Aardwolf Brewing.

Check out http://www.tampabay.com/topics/specials/craft-beer.page. The main page has a map with local breweries. CCB is probably the best overall but try to hit as many as can they all are pretty good.

Also, fyi, CCB just started serving food in the tap room, http://t.co/cIA5DlJnur

Put another vote in the must visit Cigar City. Went there with my girlfriend over Memorial Day weekend and they so many unique options. A cucumber sasion, a guava beer but can't recall the style, and their ipa age on maple wood baseball bats! They also have ciders and leads on tap too. On Tuesdays at noon they offer a special growler too if you can get there before its gone.

Also recommend Swamp Head up in Gainsville. Had some of beers and they were all tasty.

While you're there, the Columbia is awesome for Cuban food.

Last time I was at CC, I could have gone back four or five times, they had tons of beers on tap, and almost everything was awesome.

If you get near the coast, Dunedin Brewery (Dunedin), 7venth Sun (Dunedin), Rapp Brewing (Largo), Barley Mow (Largo), and St. Somewhere (Tarpon Springs). This is my stomping ground.

The Maduro Brown was awesome. It was everything I wanted my home brew northern English brown to be.... But the CCB version actually exists. I will be visiting the tap room as soon as possible. I dont especially enjoy wits so I'll forego that one.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

Peg's Cantina looks awesome. We didn't get to go on our trip down in May, but it was highly recommended by others. As suggested by other posters the CCB tap room is an absolute must. Keep a look out for beer from Terrapin and Sweetwater (GA beers, but readily available).

http://www.pegscantina.com/

Peg's Cantina serves awesome food, pretty good beer, and it has a nice outside seating area, although Gulfport isn't my favorite place to go. It'd be nice to go there for lunch.

Cigar City also has their own food station area now where their merch used to be near the front entrance called the Corner Cafe. I believe this is brand new just this week. Cigar City also has their own brewpub called, you guessed it, Cigar City Brewpub that is 15-20 minutes north on Dale Mabry. They brew their own beer separate from the brewery. When we went, my husband and I split the Ropa Vieja, which was delish.

If you can, try and pick up CCB's Good Gourd... if you like pumpkin beers. It has to be the best pumpkin beer I've ever had.

PassedPawn has already mentioned a lot of the other breweries, all worth visiting. Tampa isn't my stomping ground, Orlando is, but I'm in the Tampa area enough.

passedpawn said:

if you get near the coast, dunedin brewery (dunedin), 7venth sun (dunedin), rapp brewing (largo), barley mow (largo), and st. Somewhere (tarpon springs). This is my stomping ground.

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+1

Everyone hit the high points in the area..

Pegs Cantina is a great food/beer venue and officially has its full brewery called Cycle Brewing now which is getting ready to open very soon at that location..

If you like hops and red ales, stock up on Cigar City Tocobaga Red ale while you are there as it is only distributed in the Tampa Bay area or at the brewery.. Its a marriage of a Great IPA and a Great Red ale and one of my favorite year round available beers

So when we switched hotels today we stopped at whole foods in Tampa. My jaw dropped when I saw they had a full bar in the deli area! CCB Maduro was $4 a pint and dogfish head 90 min ipa was $4.75 in a full 16 ounce goblet. I also had their cheap house lager which was $2.50 a pint. It was awesome! We don't have such nice things in NJ. I left the store with a buzz on and a sixer of bells 2hearted ale which i cant get in NJ. Im stoked!

CCB taproom coming up soon

I just got back from Tampa / St. Pete min vacation.

We hit Cigar City Friday and that place rocks!! Ridiculously busy though. I'm confused why a place called Cigar City and has a guy rolling cigars right in the place, has no lounge or anything to smoke. Oh well the beer kicked ass!!

We the went to Dunedin. Awesome!! Their food was incredible and their beer was even better!! You have got to try the Sub Tropical IPA. Delicious!!

Our last stop was Rapp. 20 in house brews on tap. $5 a pint. How can you go wrong? They had a grill out front with free kielbasa and kraut. Awesome place.

I really want to move to Tampa.

firerat said:

I just got back from Tampa / St. Pete min vacation.

We hit Cigar City Friday and that place rocks!! Ridiculously busy though. I'm confused why a place called Cigar City and has a guy rolling cigars right in the place, has no lounge or anything to smoke. Oh well the beer kicked ass!!

We the went to Dunedin. Awesome!! Their food was incredible and their beer was even better!! You have got to try the Sub Tropical IPA. Delicious!!

Our last stop was Rapp. 20 in house brews on tap. $5 a pint. How can you go wrong? They had a grill out front with free kielbasa and kraut. Awesome place.

I really want to move to Tampa.

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I was drinking that sub tropical IPA Saturday after a long bike ride. You should have dropped me a PM, I would have met you over there at the Dunedin Brewery.

7venth Sun is literally about 500 feet from the brewery. Good little brewery, maybe you hit it next time. They serve a very eclectic mix of beers, mostly IPAs and Belgians, all brewed on premises.

passedpawn said:

I was drinking that sub tropical IPA Saturday after a long bike ride. You should have dropped me a PM, I would have met you over there at the Dunedin Brewery.

7venth Sun is literally about 500 feet from the brewery. Good little brewery, maybe you hit it next time. They serve a very eclectic mix of beers, mostly IPAs and Belgians, all brewed on premises.

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Oh wow man that would have been cool!! Next time I'm up there I'll make sure to do that!!

What time were you around there Saturday? I know I was there about 5ish because we caught the last of the beer tours.

firerat said:

Oh wow man that would have been cool!! Next time I'm up there I'll make sure to do that!!

What time were you around there Saturday? I know I was there about 5ish because we caught the last of the beer tours.

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~ 1pm.