Like Dunedin Brewery across the bay, the Doble family’s Tampa Bay Brewing Company presaged the region’s craft beer boom, coming out swinging in ‘95 with a then-unique proto-brewpub concept, independent distribution plan and great local beer whose consistent quality kept the Ybor City-based brand on the grow before and during craft’s still-burgeoning salad days in the area.
When the boom did come, BrewCo took full advantage, building on its well-loved stable of core beers and expanding its variety of flavors. And in 2015, the company opened a massive new 17,000-square-foot-plus 30-barrel facility and full-service restaurant and taproom in the Westchase area.
“Our whole intent was to produce beer and share the beer we make”
“For us, as the craft beer scene really started to blossom in this town, we really had a choice to make,” said director of brewing operations David Doble. “It was either continue down the path we were on, the brewpub path, and we would have done extremely well in that game, or switch gears a little bit and start going the production route.”
BrewCo continues to serve food at both of its locations — as well as hosting regular in-house releases of brews unavailable anywhere else — and remains a popular name in the restaurant industry. But there’s no doubt local beer lovers have seen more, and more kinds, of Tampa Bay Brewing Company beer in cans on grocery store shelves, in bars and at local events. From the outside, someone new to the scene might assume that BrewCo’s ubiquity and success came out of the current all-over popularity of local craft, but in truth, it’s the result of two decades of the ol’ slow and steady, and it’s been happening since long before a brewery appeared on seemingly every corner in St. Pete and Seminole Heights.
“If you look back to our roots, our whole intent was to produce beer and share the beer we make,” Doble said. “Our entire focal point is beer. So when the opportunity came up to have a production brewery, and there was a climate to support it, we just jumped at it.”
1600 E. Eighth Ave., Ybor City/13937 Monroe’s Business Park, Tampa. 813-247-1422.
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2018.