Beer in Florida

I just finished updating the Florida Brewery Map and List on this site, and according to my counting, the Sunshine State now has 103 operating breweries, and another 31 on the way. Those are remarkable numbers considering that not all that long ago, there weren’t even 31 breweries in the entire state!

A few things that struck me while updating.

Central Florida will soon be booming with beer. Three breweries – Southern Moon, Broken Strings and Ten10 – will be opening in Orlando proper, joining Orlando Brewing and the nano-sized Redlight Redlight. Another, Dead Lizard, was announced last year, but no address has been released. In the bedroom communities just east of O-town, Persimmon Hollow in Deland, WopHops in Sanford, Bowigens in Casselberry, and Crooked Can in Winter Park will be coming online in the months ahead.

Only two breweries have closed since the last update. Brewzzi CityPlace in West Palm Beach has shut its doors as a result of a dispute with its landlord, and Mile Marker Brewing in St. Augustine closed for still-unknown reasons in June.

The Panhandle still is awaiting its turn to “fill in” on the map. Grasslands Brewing is opening in Tallahassee, and Proof Brewing Company’s second location there has started producing, but other than Oyster Bay Brewing opening in Apalachicola, new and planned breweries remain scarce in that part of our state.

If you don’t zoom in too close, the east coast seems to have a solid line of breweries from north of Jacksonville to the Keys. The first person to hit all of them while traveling via watercraft definitely will get a shoutout!

These are the criteria used for the map, copied from a previous post:

• The brewery or brewpub must produce beer on its premises. This means you will not find companies such as Native Brewing Company in Fort Lauderdale or Fantasy Brewmasters in Fort Myers that contract their beer at other breweries.
• It does include breweries such as Grayton Beer Company in Santa Rosa Beach, which recently opened a new brewery and no longer contract brews, and Holy Mackerel Beers, which still contracts the bulk of its production, but opened The Mack House – Holy Mackerel Nano Brewery in Fort Lauderdale last year.
• It includes two brewpubs – Karibrew in Fernandina Beach and Marco Island Brewery – whose brewing process is completed on site but started elsewhere.
• It does not include BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse locations. Their beer is brewed out of state, but the chain is one of the brewing partners at BrewHub, the recently opened operation in Lakeland that offers brewing and marketing services for other breweries. (BrewHub is on the map.)
• To be included, a brewery or brewpub must have a physical address – it would be hard to map it otherwise – and if not yet open, it needs to have made solid steps such as ordering or installing equipment, and starting the regulatory process.
• Other maps and lists out there are based on different criteria.  The Florida Brewers Guild map only lists those breweries and brewpubs that are members. Others list breweries that haven’t made any steps toward opening other than filing as a business entity, sometimes years ago, with no progress since.

As far as which brewery was the 100^th? I just don’t have the time to try to figure that out, but any of you are welcome to try.

It’s a good problem to have, but updating this becomes more laborious and time-consuming every time, and I’m sure I’ve made an error or two. As always, I welcome feedback and corrections. You can leave a comment below or on the Facebook page, or shoot an email to gerard@beerinflorida.com.

View Florida Breweries in a larger map

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