The Rose and Crown Pub at Disney Epcot.
This usually comes out on Friday, but I’ve been at the Social Media Moms Conference at Walt Disney World as a guest of my lovely wife, aka Theme Park Mom, and I haven’t had a chance to carve out any time on the Intertubes until now.
Unfortunately, that means I can’t really write about events happening today because they’re pretty much almost over, and I apologize for that. But there are a few bits of news on the Florida craft beer scene that I can share.
St. Paddy’s Day Poetry
My good friend and former colleague Alan Shaw, aka The Beer Geek for Ticket Sarasota, got a chance Thursday to share an original limerick with the St. Paddy’s Day crowd at Sarasota’s Shamrock Pub. If you didn’t get a chance to hear the verse, he posted it on his blog:
St. Patrick’s Day is known for green beer,
a tradition no beer geek holds dear.
So I implore all of you,
instead, drink a craft brew,
which will hopefully help my career.
Fine job, Alan!
Get on the bus
A new venture, Tampa Bay Brew Bus, will take off on its first foray on Saturday, April 9, 2011. Cigar City Brewing employees Travis and Ethan are hiring a tour bus, throwing a keg on it, and opening it up to 50 other folks. The tour will hit Peg’s Cantina in Gulfport, then the Dunedin Brewery and wrap it up at Cigar City, where Travis and Ethan will give the beer voyagers “a tour of the entire brewery and the opportunity to sample beers from the CCB line-up.” Travis says there may even be some “hard-to-find goodies” broken out for the occasion. Go to the Tampa Bay Brew Bus website for more information.
Back to the roots
I had the privilege of chatting with Tom Moench, owner of Orange Blossom Pilsner, during Hunaphu’s Release Day at Cigar City Brewing. He told me the good news that he’s working on bringing the brewing of the popular beer back to Florida; it’s currently contract brewed in South Carolina. Lo and behold, just a few days later, I open up my Orlando Sentinel (the actual newspaper, not the website) and read a business feature story on how Tom is working with the UCF Business Incubation Program on getting the brewery up and running.
“As good as I am with beer, and I’m pretty good with business, … I didn’t trust my business acumen to get me where I needed to go, and that’s why I went to the UCF business incubator,” Tom modestly told the Sentinel. “They took me under their wing, and they are as much committed to me getting my own brewery as I am.”
Wasted away again in CraftBeerville
Always on the lookout for new places for good beer, I heard of this establishment in, of all places, Key West, home of big cheap beers and colorful tropical drinks. It’s called The Porch, and the tap list on its website is impressive, especially for the southernmost city in the U.S.
Busch be gone
Seen any large packs of drunken frat boys with money still in their pockets? They could be complicit with this theft of a semi-trailer full of Busch Beer.
Reminder: Please use our free interactive events calendar to promote your upcoming craft beer events. The link’s on top of the Beer in Florida home page.
That’s it for Beer Bites this week. Feel free to email trips4beer@gmail.com with any ideas or story tips.
Until next time, Florida, remember: We are here! We are Beer!
