When I arrive to the inaugural In the Woods at Coppertail Brewing Co., there's a great turnout for what's set to become a yearly Tampa Bay Beer Week event.
Heading up the Wednesday night gathering — part Pinewood Derby race, part tap takeover and part bottle release — are the Ybor City brewery's Zeus Cordeiro, tasting room general manager, and Jessica Lindholm, event coordinator and assistant tasting room manager. At 8:30 p.m., all teams are registered and derby cars are weighed and displayed. The Pinewood Derby race is on.
The event's wood theme carried over to the takeover from Hardywood Park Craft Brewery out of Richmond, Virginia. Six beers were shipped in fresh for the taps — including the Bourbon Barrel-Aged Gingerbread Stout, a thick, dark and strong ale described as "freagin' Christmas in a bottle" by BeerAdvocate. Another favorite is the VIPA, for Virginia IPA, with a nicely malted golden barley color and citrusy, if not grassy, hop finish.
In the Woods also celebrated the limited release of Coppertail's Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cryptid Imperial Stout in 750-milliliter bottles.
As the race begins, scores of spectators line the custom-built track to watch five heats of four racers compete for two titles: the winner, and the Loseriest of the Losers. The heats pass, and Sexual Cucumber is crowned the slowest, a.k.a. the Loseriest. But to determine the winner, the four fastest cars must face off — Golden Rod in Lane 1, Rod Stewart in 2, Ugly in 3, and Goldie 3 in Lane 4.
The builders of Goldie 3 are Coppertail brewer Matthew McKinnon and his father Jeffrey Baxter
"It was an opportunity to work on a project with my dad," McKinnon says, "reliving a bit of childhood."
Anticipation builds on their faces as the final race is about to start. General manager Cordeiro, the evening's emcee, lines up the pinewood cars on the track, gives the beep-beep-boop and away they go. Gravity takes hold and accelerates the cars down the track. Cheers envelope the room. And in less than two and a half seconds, it's over.
Golden Rod is declared the winner with a time of 2.412 seconds, narrowly beating out the others. Goldie 3 takes home third place, but both father and son are pouring over their car, trying to figure out what changes will make it faster.
Next year, the new tradition continues.
This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2017.