Among the plethora of Florida breweries making a name for themselves in recent years, one in particular has been growing and evolving since 1999. The Florida Beer Company, located in Melbourne, has gone through changes and acquisitions in recent years, but has begun to establish a new identity rooted in Florida-centric, “drink local” themed beers.
Leading with the award-winning flagship beer, Florida Lager, FBC is growing and expanding to reinvent itself. In fact, their growth has been such that an expansion is in the works to keep up with demand, as well as create the opportunity to create and offer some new styles. The expansion will be roughly 80,000 barrels (almost 2.5 million gallons), with room to expand to 120,000 barrels capacity in a newly retrofitted facility. The building used to be owned by the Chrysler Corporation, and was used to build and house Saturn 5 rockets. The new brewery will also have a 5,000 square foot tasting room that will feature many new brews from the FBC Pilot series.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2012.
