Beer Bites: Crawling, Liters and Monsters

Beer in Florida photo by Gerard Walen

This is Rob Widmer. You can meet his brother, Kurt, next week in Orlando.

If you’re like me, you’re enviously following the tweets and Facebook updates from all the beer lovers lucky – or wealthy – enough to be attending the Great American Beer Festival this weekend in Denver.

But fear not, fellow Florida craft beer lovers. There are enough brew-happy events going on in the next few days that you will not go thirsty in our fair state.

Still … I’d rather be in Denver.  Maybe next year.

On with Beer Bites.

Walking Before Crawling

The Ybor OktoberFest Pub Crawl will be Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. in Tampa’s historic Ybor City. For $25, each participant will get a T-shirt, a 4 oz. beer sample at each of the 18 participating pubs and patio bars and a chance at door prizes, not to mention a lot of Oktoberfest-style music and other activities. Click here for more information.

ELLA, not Stella

The Ella Music Festival will be at Orlando Brewing on Saturday and Sunday.  There’s way too much going on to list it all, so I’ll be sending you straight to the festival’s homepage.

No, No, Keep It

Willard’s Taphouse in Largo will have a Florida Avenue Keep the Pint Night Wednesday beginning at 7 p.m.  Four of the beers from Tampa’s Cold Storage Craft Brewery will be on tap, including the new Reserve Amber. More on it here.

Take Me to Your Liter

Dunedin Brewery will kick off its three-day Oktobeerfest celebration on Thursday with the Literstein Release. The brewery will fill only its Literstein mugs that night. If you already have one from previous years, bring it along, or you can purchase one of the 1-liter glass souvenirs for $30 and get $6 refills of standard ales or $8 fills of seasonals. Read more here.

Monstrous

The Monsters Beertoberfest will be Saturday at Waterford Lakes Town Center on the east side of Orlando. Expect live music and food and beer tastings included with admission. More info  here.

Explore your Craft

If you’re planning on being in Orlando on Saturday,  October 8,  you might want to buy some tickets for Explore Your Craft: An Unforgettable Evening of Beer, Food and Arts. It will be at the downtown restaurant/tavern Ember. But wait, Gerard, this is NEXT Saturday. Why is it in this week’s Beer Bites, you may ask. Here’s why. The event features food paired with offerings from Widmer Brothers Brewing in Portland, Oregon, and one of the brothers, Kurt, will be at the event. If you can’t make it to Explore Your Craft, you may have a chance to meet Kurt on Thursday night at the ABC Fine Wine & Spirits store at 11951 S. Apopka-Vineland Road in Orlando, which will be holding a Craft Beer Tasting  from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information on Explore Your Craft, click here; info on the ABC tasting is here.

Lucky Number

The event itself won’t be till next month, but the Central Florida Home Brewers club will be putting on what sounds like a fantastic festival – the 21st Anniversary Sunshine Challenge. And “21” symbolizes some important things to beer lovers. It’s the age at which a person can legally buy a beer in this country, and of course it’s the constitutional amendment that ended the horrible historical period called “Prohibition.” The CFHB is seeking artists to design a T-shirt to commemorate the amendment and the festival.  The winner will receive a free pass to the festival and have the thrill of seeing his or her work proudly adorning the bodies of a lot of beer geeks. More information here.

That’s it for this week’s Beer Bites. Have a great weekend. Go Rays. Go Bucs. Go Bulls … uh, scratch that last one.

Please email trips4beer@gmail.com with any ideas or story tips. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Until next time, Florida, remember: We are Here! We are Beer!

 

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1 Response to Beer Bites: Crawling, Liters and Monsters

  1. Pingback: Florida beer events and news for October 2011 | Beer in Florida | Orlando

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