Once a city develops a craft beer scene, a brewery bus tour generally follows. Tampa has one. So does Asheville, North Carolina; Boulder, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and several others.
To those, add the Jax Brew Bus.
Three homebrewing friends who met at the University of North Florida – Josh Carpenter, Glenn Vopper and Mike Maulsby – purchased a used airport shuttle bus, gave it a new paint job, secured the necessary licenses and permits and launched the Saturday tours of Jacksonville, Florida’s burgeoning craft beer scene.
The entire tour takes about five hours – 1 p.m. to roughly 6 p.m. – with stops at four breweries and a homebrew supply store. About 90 minutes of that is travel time, but the hosts fill it with plenty of information so passengers can learn more about where they’ll be stopping.
“While we transport customers around Jacksonville, we teach them about each brewery, the brewmaster, how it got started,” Carpenter said. “We’ll give a little history of homebrewing and how it started in America.”
The tour also stops at local homebrew store Just Brew It, where beer lovers can learn more about the brewing process, and maybe pick up a beginners kit if the itch to brew is strong enough. And, Carpenter said, it’s an opportunity to support another local business.
With the craft beer scene booming not only in Jacksonville but also across the country, Carpenter said, he and his partners felt the time was right for their venture.
“Mass produced beer is taking a back seat,” he said, “while craft beer is taking off.”
Jax Brew Bus ordinarily visits four breweries: Intuition Ale Works, Green Room Brewing, Bold City Brewery and Engine 15 Brewing Co., though that could evolve along with the business.
The partners took the bus out for a shakedown cruise on October 22. The next weekend was the Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville, so rather than compete with that, the partners scheduled the first official tour on Saturday, November 5. It sold out.
Spots were available for the next four Saturdays at the time of this writing.
The cost of $50 includes at least one beer at each brewery. The bus seats 15, not counting the driver. Arrangements can be made for private group charters. Beer is not provided aboard the bus, but passengers are allowed to buy their own at the breweries and bring it on the bus, where there will be a large cooler with ice for convenience.
“Our goal is to show people what we have here in Jacksonville,” Carpenter said.
As far as the future, Carpenter said, the fleet may expand if the company succeeds. Tours could be scheduled for St. Augustine or Gainesville.
And beyond that?
“We’d like to own our own brewery, someday,” Carpenter said. “We love beer, love making beer, and love drinking beer with friends.”
For more information, visit jaxbrewbus.com.
The folks at the CraftCans.com website posted an interview this morning with Geiger Powell, media and marketing director at Cigar City Brewing and the artist who created most of the Tampa brewery’s labels. In the interview, Powell revealed more about Cigar City’s plans to can several of its beers.
