visiting clearwater / st. pete FL looking for local beer

[maida7]

Hey Ya'll I'll be staying near clearwater for a week. What are the must do beer destinations in the area. Cigar City? What else?

 

[cclloyd]

While we don't have the variety that your town does (LOVE Asheville!!) there are some decent places worth going. Dunedin Brewery Dunedin Brewery - Florida's Oldest Craft Brewery makes some fine beers and is a pretty cool place to go.
Also the Tampa Bay Brewing Co. in Ybor City Tampa Bay Brewing Company : Restaurant & Microbrewery : 813-247-1422 : Ybor City Tampa, Florida has some real good beers and were one of the first brewpubs / micros in the area.
Cigar City is stellar and they have a small pub at the brewery. Well worth a visit.
Lesser known but worth seeking out is Peg's Cantina in Gulfport Peg's Cantina in Gulfport, Florida - the brewer here is an assistant at Cigar City and does some cool stuff on a little half barrel set up out back of the restaurant.
there are also a lot of beer centric bars and a couple of micro / nano breweries that are open but are just pouring craft beers while waiting on licensing to come through.
7venth Sun Seventh Sun Brewing - Brewery Bar - Dunedin, FL | Facebook and Barley Mow Barley Mow Brewing Co. | Craft Brewery in Tampa, FL are two that come to mind.
Enjoy your stay and be careful - the cops down here don't play nice.

 

[edecambra]

Dunedin Brewery is good and closer to clearwater than Cigar city, a cute little beach town too. Yuengling is also over in Tampa and a fun, factory brewery tour, all free with free tasting ( thought not as good as Cigar City, duh)

If you are in tampa, down in Ybor there is a brerwpub, Tampa Bay Brewing Co. with decent beers too, and Ybor is fun to see.

There arent' too many "local" beers though, and Cigar City is by far the best out of Tampa, with a great tasting room.

 

[maida7]

Are any of these places kid friendly? Or is this beer available in bottles and cans for taking to the beach, etc...

 

[maida7]

pegs looks super cool.

 

[cclloyd]

Pegs and TBBC are both restaurants and kid friendly. The others are more bar atmosphere. Beware of beers on the beach - there's only one beach left (Madeira Beach I believe) where alcohol is legal so you have to be very discreet. Open container is a $100 plus fine and they'll make you dump them all if you have a cooler.

 

[Seven]

I highly recommend Cigar City. Check their website for tour schedules.

 

[JefeTheVol]

There's a brewery in Tarpon Springs that makes a great Saison...here it is
St Somewhere

 

[TopherM]

Here's some suggestions for a few good craft beer spots:

There is a new World of Beers in downtown St. Pete that is kid-friendly and has about 45 brews on tap and another 200 or so in bottles. No food here, but they do free delivery from lots of the local downtown restaurants. They do 1/2 price on about a dozen beers and have free pizza on Sundays, so a good place to watch football.

If you like Belgian/Eastern European Brews, there is a great little place in downtown St. Pete called Independent that has all obscure European stuff. They have an outdoor patio that would be fine for kids.

If you are closer to Clearwater than St. Pete, check out House of Beers on your way to Dunedin Brewery. They are about a quarter mile away from each other in Dunedin. Small place, more of a bar, but they also have outdoor seating that would be more kid-friendly. This place has about 25 good beers on draft and another 75 or so in bottles.

 

[maida7]

Hey thanks everybody for all the great advice. I think we will go to pegs and TBBC for a meal. Probably stop by cigar city to get some beer to go.

What is a good place in the south highpoint / largo / indian shores part of town to pick up beer. At the supermarket? Specialty beer store? I'm more interested in local beer then stuff I can get back home.

Also, thanks for the tips on beach drinking. I'll be sure to keep it on the DL.

 

[cclloyd]

What is a good place in the south highpoint / largo / indian shores part of town to pick up beer. At the supermarket? Specialty beer store? I'm more interested in local beer then stuff I can get back home.

In Largo on Ridge Road just north of Ulmerton Road is "Beerworld of Largo".
2144 Ridge Road Largo, Florida 33778 (727) 588-1577

It's a small building that used to be a convenience store and is now packed to the ceiling with obscure and hard to find beers from all over the world in addition to a good local selection. Definitely doesn't look like much but don't be fooled - the place is a gold mine.