Everybody knows there’s a ton of great beer around here. From our downtowns out to Brooksville, Apollo Beach and beyond, it seems like there’s a brewery every mile or two, each with its own slew of signature brews. You can spend an entire day walking around St. Pete or Dunedin or the neighborhoods that surround downtown Tampa, and not go anywhere but breweries. There’s no question our tasting rooms are up there with anything any other craft beer destination has to offer.
But what if you want a great local beer outside the taprooms? This is the land of summer sun and fun — you don’t always want to belly up to the bar in order to enjoy a hometown brand.
Fortunately, a number of Tampa Bay breweries have you covered with production cans and bottles. From the ubiquitous IPAs to summery sours, crisp pilsners, full-bodied browns, thick stouts and more, there are tastes and styles for every palate and season. You don’t have to go to the brewery to get ‘em, or buy ‘em by the growler, either — several are available at freakin’ Publix, and many more can be found at any of several specialty shops, convenience stores and bodegas on both sides of the bay.
How many are there? What with seasonals, specialty releases and collaborations, the number is always in flux, but we decided to track down and taste as many as we could get our hands on in the name of illustrating just how much is out there. (And, of course, of drinking a lot of great beer.) Along the way, we got to touch base with friends old and new in the scene and caught up on the latest local news (Barley Mow’s remaining stock is getting hard to find! Coppertail is swapping Wheat Stroke out of its core lineup for a new pilsner! 3 Daughters will have ciders and its Floating Dock Light IPA out in cans soon!). We came up with 72 bottles and cans in very short order, with help from several of the breweries themselves, and invited the CL staff to taste ‘em all. The folks who partook run the gamut from bottle-hoarding craft beer snobs to occasional drinkers, but everybody found something to love, and we even got a few perfect scores out of the deal.
Below is a rundown of every single beer we tried, along with a score of 1 to 5 and comments from our tasters. We didn’t get to every can and bottle of local beer currently available, but we got most of ‘em, and we had a hell of a time trying. We hope you find something on this list to seek out the next time you’re in the mood for a hometown brew to go.
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Here’s how our extremely unscientific taste testing went down: Some breweries donated their core lineup and whatever else was on hand; for the rest, we went to the breweries we knew had beer in distribution, then stopped by a couple of excellent St. Pete beer stores — Hawthorne Bottle Shoppe and Shep’s Beer Empourium — to raid their shelves for whatever we saw that we didn’t have yet.
The 72 beers listed below were served at two tastings on consecutive days for interested staffers in the CL Space. The first three CL staffers to taste each beer gave it a numerical rating from 1 to 5; those three ratings were averaged, then rounded to the nearest half. Everyone was welcome to taste all beers and leave additional comments. —SH
3 DAUGHTERS AWAKE COFFEE BLONDE
4.5
“One of the best ales ever! The coffee isn’t too overpowering.”
3 DAUGHTERS BEACH BLONDE ALE
4
“One of my favorite local beers.”
3 DAUGHTERS BIMINI TWIST IPA
3.5
“Not too bitter, very refreshing.”
3 DAUGHERS ROD BENDER RED
3
“A pretty mellow red.”
3 DAUGHTERS STERN LINE STOUT
3.5
“Very nice, slightly sweet.”
BARLEY MOW AMERICANA GOLDEN ALE
3.5 Stars
“Yes, please. Would drink every summer — forever.”
BARLEY MOW CALLIOPE SHANDY
3
“Lemony and carbonated, it would be nice by the pool.”
BARLEY MOW MAVEN CHOCOLATE STOUT
3.5
“Thin and dark, and not as sweet as I might’ve expected.”
BARLEY MOW QUACKALOPE IPA
3.5
“Tart dry fruit notes, surprisingly sweet finish for an IPA.”
BIG STORM ARCUS IPA
3
“Kinda into the watermelon-y notes we’re picking up, and I dig the can’s food pairings.”
BIG STORM HELICITY LAGER PILSNER
4
“My favorite of the Big Storm core brews. Very crisp and super drinkable.”
BIG STORM SURFLINE GULF COAST LAGER
3.5
“Very unique, fruity and just a little sweet.”
BIG STORM TROPIC PRESSURE FLORIDA ALE
4
“Mmmm, so good, light and crisp with a sweet aftertaste.”
BIG STORM WAVEMAKER AMBER ALE
2.5
“Good all-around beer if you’re not looking for too much or too little flavor.”
BIG TOP CIRCUS CITY IPA
3
“Easy to get down, light and tasty.”
BIG TOP CONCH REPUBLIC KEY LIME WHEAT
3
“Interesting departure for a wheat. Tastes creamy with a hint of graham crackers.”
BIG TOP HAWAIIAN LION TOASTED COCONUT AND COFFEE PORTER
3.5
“I would drink this forever. Excellent coconut flavor, not too much.”
BIG TOP TRAPEZE MONK WIT STYLE
3
“Don’t usually like wits but this is super refreshing.”
BREW BUS YOU’RE MY BOY, BLUE BLUEBERRY WHEAT
2
“Very prominent blueberry nose, taste just a little less so.”
BREW BUS LAST STOP IPA
3.5
“Straightforward, just what I expect from an IPA.”
BREW BUS ROLLIN’ DIRTY IRISH RED
3
“Tastes good, I like it but I don’t know shit about beer.”
BREW HUB DIVER DOWN RED
2.5
“Got an interesting bit of raisin flavor.”
BREW HUB SUN GOSE DOWN
3.5
“I don’t usually like sours but this is very good.”
BREW HUB ROME CITY IPA
3.5
“Not bad. Light and I’d say almost-sessionable.”
CIGAR CITY CUBANO-STYLE ESPRESSO BROWN ALE
4.5
“All the flavors of a coffeehouse in a tasty can.”
CIGAR CITY FLORIDA CRACKER BELGIAN-STYLE WHITE ALE
3
“If you enjoy Belgians this is good, a nice gateway.”
CIGAR CITY GUAYABERA CITRA PALE ALE
4
“The citra hops come through in a big way, it’s balanced and refreshing.”
CIGAR CITY HUNAHPU’S IMPERIAL STOUT
4
“If there was a chill in the air I’d enjoy a pint of this.”
CIGAR CITY INVASION PALE ALE
4
“A perfect session beer, well-balanced.”
CIGAR CITY JAI ALAI IPA
5
“Tampa famous. One of my favorite IPAs in the world.”
“I did the Beer Mile with a full belly of this and lived to tell the tale.”
CIGAR CITY LAGER
4
“The label says it all — ‘made for drinking.’”
CIGAR CITY MADURO BROWN ALE
4
“Super solid and lighter than you’d expect.”
CIGAR CITY MARSHAL ZHUKOV’S PENULTIMATE PUSH IMPERIAL STOUT
(out this month)
4
“Nicely true to style. Dark and thick, with a rich mouth feel.”
CIGAR CITY OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIE
(Brown Ale)
4.5
“Cookie party, I like the spicy notes, wish it was a bit thicker.”
CIGAR CITY WHITE OAK JAI ALAI IPA
4.5
“Apparently, Jai Alai CAN get even better.”
COPPERTAIL FREE DIVE IPA
4.5
“My favorite Tampa IPA.”
COPPERTAIL NIGHT SWIM PORTER
4.5
“Nice flavors, bold but easy-drinking.”
COPPERTAIL PINKY SWEAR FLORIDA WEISSE
4.5
“Love! Not too tart — it’s like adult raspberry lemonade.”
COPPERTAIL UNHOLY TRIPPEL
5
“My favorite beer hands down.”
“Great example of the style, fruity with some nice subtle funk.”
CROOKED THUMB BREWING BRETT
4.5
“Delicious, light, just a hint of tartness.”
DARWIN BREWING CIRCA 1926
2.5
“This is good, but I thought there would be more tangerine flavor.”
DARWIN BREWING LLAMA MAMA MILK STOUT
2
“A little light for a stout, not bad.”
DARWIN BREWING PIRATA PILS
4
“Crisp, wonderful summer beer.”
DARWIN BREWING SUMMERDAZE IPA
2
“IPA with a big bite, you can taste the lingering citrus notes.”
FLORIDA AVE. ALE
2.5
“Easy to drink. Hard to put down.”
FLORIDA AVE. IPA
3
“Session beer, refreshing, not filling.”
GREEN BENCH LES GRISETTES
(Farmhouse ale)
3
“Notes of funky barnyard with sweetness, easy to drink”
GREEN BENCH POSTCARD PILS
2.5
“First drank this when I found out Chester Bennington died, so it left a bitter taste in my mouth.”
GREEN BENCH SAISON DE BANC VERT
3
“Wonderful funk with hints of vanilla and oak. Very carbonated.”
GREEN BENCH SUNSHINE CITY IPA
4
“Just a nice, classic IPA.”
JDUB’S FRUITS OF FLORIDA BLUEBERRY IPA
3.5
“Great aroma… delicious and easy to drink.”
MOTORWORKS INDY IPA
3
“Earthy in a good way. Fresh, crisp.”
MOTORWORKS MIDNIGHT ESPRESSO PORTER
3.5
“I’d be happy to have this in front of me.”
MOTORWORKS ROLL CAGE RED
4
“Perfect and smooth.”
MOTORWORKS V-TWIN VIENNA LAGER
3.5
“Would drink all day.”
PAIR O’ DICE CLEARWATER HONEY CREAM
(Cream ale style)
2.5
“Super tasty. Not too much honey — just right.”
PAIR O’ DICE HOP BET RED
3
“Does what it says, hoppy and red.”
PAIR O’ DICE LOWBALL IPA
4
“More like highball! Awesome IPA, one of my new faves.”
PAIR O’ DICE LUCKY LUCY STRAWBERRY BLONDE
3
“Very fruity and light, not bitter at all. Another good beach beer.”
PAIR O’ DICE MO’ GUAVA IPA
4
“A good beach beer, an IPA that doesn’t taste like weed.”
PINELLAS ALE WORKS MILK BONE STOUT
4
“Hints of coffee but not too sweet. Light for a stout.”
PINELLAS ALE WORKS PIDDLE PILSNER
2
“Pungent, a bit heavier than your usual pils.”
PINELLAS ALE WORKS SIT AMBER
2
“A little malty for me personally.”
ST. PETE BREWING CO. MILO’S IPA
3
“You had me at the cool can art. Smooth and light, with a lingering bitterness.”
ST. PETE BREWING CO. ORANGE WHEAT
3.5
“Smells good, crisp. I like how light and easy to drink it is.”
TAMPA BAY BREWING COMPANY FLORIDA TART
4.5
“Unique almost pastry smell in the nose, but the tart fruity palate wins at the finish.”
TAMPA BAY BREWING COMPANY OLD ELEPHANT FOOT IPA
4.5
“Malty with a nice, bittery hop balance. The OG local IPA.”
TAMPA BAY BREWING COMPANY REEF DONKEY AMERICAN PALE ALE
5
“Wonderful drinking, lots of flavor, good body.”
“Super tasty with perfectly balanced hop taste.”
TAMPA BAY BREWING COMPANY TRUE BLONDE
3.5
“Light summer beer, very tasty.”
TWO HENRYS 7 MILE BRIDGE ENGLISH STYLE IPA
2.5
“Strong, hoppy flavor and full-bodied taste.”
TWO HENRYS GILDED AGE LAGER
2
“Not a light, summery American-style lager, full-bodied.”
TWO HENRYS SUNSET BEACH BIKINI ALE
2 Stars
“Not quite as light as the can might suggest, but not bad, a lighter ale.”
This article appears in Aug 3-10, 2017.