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As any good beer geek knows, a craft beer road trip is truly a worthwhile adventure that shouldn’t be rushed. Lucky for me, I had the time and of course the thirst for a 2-day Southeast Florida brewery circuit. If you missed the first leg, be sure to see what awesome spots I hit on Day 1. Here are four more reasons why Florida’s Southeast coast is an awesome and off-the-beaten-path option for a picture-perfect brewery road trip.
Sailfish Brewing Company – Ft. Pierce (39 miles)
Sailfish Brewing‘s motto is “Everyone has a fishing story, what’s yours?” and they weren’t kidding. Within minutes of entering the quaint, refurbished residential home-turned-brewery, we were trading fishing stories and cell phone pics of groupers and reds with General Manager Al Beltran. There are so many things to like about this brewery. The beer – you know, the important stuff – was right on point.
A very tasty Mahi Mahi Pale Ale and a Mango Hefeweizen that was amazingly well-balanced were a great start to the day. The brewery has a small but cozy tasting room and a beautiful beer garden that slopes up a small hill to a stage area where they have live music on Saturdays. A Eucalyptus tree the likes of which this Cali girl hasn’t seen in far too long sits behind a brand-new 3 barrel brewhouse that they are putting the finishing touches on. And to top it all off, on Sundays, Al fires up the grill to offer free food to the patrons.
Intracoastal Brewing Company – Melbourne (52 miles)
One of the newest members in the FL brewing family (having only been open since October in the Eau Gallie Arts District), Intracoastal Brewing was surprisingly one of the standouts of the trip. With 7 beers on tap and only a single guest tap for cider drinkers, a flight is definitely the way to go and did not disappoint.
Of the offerings that day, Wit Boys Can Brew, Easy Rye’er XXX IPA, and the Right Handed Milk Stout were all beers that I would drink every day. I was intrigued by their Rice Rice Baby Pale Ale (Gasp! An adjunct?!) and it was pleasantly smooth and full of flavor. The show stopper – their Caramel Apple Ale was so delicious that it came home with us AND sparked an impromptu trip back the next weekend (lucky for us, they had a new That’s One Funky Peach Sour on).
Co-owners John Curtis, Kyle Smyth, and Donald Atwell are laser focused on bringing quality and diverse beer selections to the Melbourne area. These guys are right out of the gate and are already going places!
Cocoa Beach Brewing Company – Cocoa Beach (15 miles)
Speaking of going places, it’s a beautiful drive over the Eau Gallie Causeway and up the beach, where you’ll find yourself at one of the East Coast’s original craft breweries right on A1A. Cocoa Beach Brewing is located in a repurposed naval house built in the 1930s, just a block from the ever-popular Coconuts On the Beach.
Any beach day would be remiss without a quick walk to cool off with some of the coast’s tastiest brews. The taps rotate out pretty frequently, but they recently upgraded to a new 4.5 barrel brewhouse that is doing a good job at keeping them in production. Some “must-trys” are their Cocoa Beach Pale Ale, Not Just Some Oatmeal Stout, and the 888 IPA, which took the gold and two silvers, respectively, in the 2011 Best Florida Beer Competition. Any serious hophead would LOVE their Sofa King Double IPA. And if you stick around long enough, you’re bound to run into one of the local veterans of the Space Center, who will regale you with hilarious stories of the heyday of the space program when astronauts played drunken pranks all over town.
Bugnutty Brewing Company – Merritt Island (9 miles)
I know what you’re thinking… “What the hell is a bugnutty?” So, I asked the owners of Bugnutty Brewing. They can even use it in a sentence for you.
Bugnutty, adj. ‘b?g-‘n?-te
1. to have feelings of discouragement, disappointment, or frustration
Example: “Not having a great selection of locally brewed craft beer makes me Bugnutty.”
2. being in a state of overwhelming emotion; especially : rapturous delight
Example: “I am so Bugnutty now that I have fresh craft brewed beer right here in Merritt Island!”
Honestly, I think that’s all made up – but that’s ok because we need brewers with imagination, otherwise we’d all still be drinking MPS (mass-produced swill).
But seriously, they had some great offerings to end the trip. The Bugnutty Whaaaaat? American Strong Ale, Flakey Blonde Belgian, and Red Wheat and Blue were all solid beers.
All in all – 2 days, 178 miles, countless beers (seriously, it was hard to keep track), and lots of new friends made for an amazing beer adventure up the beautiful Southeast Florida coast. I can’t wait to do it again soon – and I will be because there are some great new breweries popping up all over the Northeast coast of Florida. I just have to pay off my gas card first!
In case you missed Part One, you’d be crazy not to check it out here.
