Wouldn’t it have been sweet if we could begin American Craft Beer Week with Tampa holding the title of BeerCity USA? Alas, the campaign fell 17,268 votes short of the (tied) winners: Asheville, N.C., and Grand Rapids, Mich.
But there are some bright spots. With 581 votes, Tampa came in 16th, smack-dab in the middle of the pack of 31 cities and ahead of some great beer cities such as Boulder, Colorado; San Francisco-Oakland; Seattle; and Boston (each of those had fewer than 400 votes, as did cross-state rival Jacksonville).
Here’s a link to the final BeerCity USA vote totals.
Huge thanks go out to J.J.Taylor Distributing-Florida and its craft beer site Brew Kettle Times for supporting the campaign by retweeting, sharing on Facebook and creating some awesome posters to hang up at their accounts in the Tampa Bay area.
Kudos also for local Patch.com sites and Ticket Sarasota’s Beer Geek, the only local media outlets that did coverage of the campaign. And a shoutout to Maria and Brian of TheRoamingPint.com, who have visited nearly 200 breweries across the country in their RV, “Stanley,” but were so impressed with the Tampa Bay area craft beer scene when they visited that they threw their support behind it in the campaign.
And many, many thanks to those of you who retweeted the links and liked the #BeerCityTPA Facebook page (we’ll keep that page live so it will be ready for next year).
Thanks to the brewers and store owners who helped spread the word. The lack of support of some others both in the Tampa Bay area and across the state was a bit troubling, but we are not going to call them out like one blogger did in Asheville (can you say sour grapes?). We aim to celebrate the state’s craft beer community, so we’ll cut some slack. We will try to ramp things up earlier next year, so I hope those who didn’t contribute will take a more active role in 2013.
Speaking of celebrating the state’s craft beer community, American Craft Beer Week runs from today through Sunday, and Florida has way too many events going on to try to list them all. Here are some links to some great resources, and if you want yours listed on our statewide events calendar, click here.
The Brewers Association and CraftBeer.com have a list of events happening all over the country. Go to this link and choose “Florida” in the drop-down menu.
Orlando
Central Florida Craft Beer Experts
Tampa Bay area
West Florida Craft Beer Experts
North Florida
North Florida Craft Beer Experts
South Florida
Jacksonville
Pensacola
If you know of any other resources, copy the link in the comments section and I’ll add it to the list.
There are also at least four festivals this week that we’re aware of, too: On Saturday, the inaugural St. Petersburg Food & Truck Festival and the Berliner Bash on the Bay at Peg’s Cantina & Brew Pub in Gulfport. Also on Saturday, the 2012 International Beer Fest in Orlando and on Tuesday, the second annual Brews with Attitude Craft Beer Festival in Tampa.
And for those who have been hiding under a rock or are new to the craft beer world, here’s a rundown of what American Craft Beer Week is all about.
