A small store front in the heart of Orlando’s Audubon Park is the home of Taps from Scratch (TFS). It’s deceiving from the outside, but inside, it’s a maze of little rooms almost like a home, with couches and comfy chairs, art, music, and taps of different beers. The first time someone walks through the doors of TFS, the look on their face is always the same – a simultaneous flash of curiosity, excitement, and bewilderment, as they wonder “what is this place?” Well, it’s a community…

Owner David Brunson, who is one of the Vice Presidents of the Central Florida Home Brewers Association, opened Taps from Scratch in June of 2011. What started out as a warehouse business refurbishing old refrigerators into pub-hubs – and reinventing the “kegerator” – has quickly morphed into a burgeoning local business with a communal vibe.

The business concept is deceivingly simple… in a “Why didn’t I think of that?!” way. Provide QUALITY beer in an aesthetic medium for private events. Picking up a keg of massed produced swill (MPS) has always been the way to provide beer to the masses, but for the people who actually like beer, weddings, birthday parties, and company events have always been less than satisfying. A pub-hub gives you the option of two to four types of quality draft beer. And while the obvious domestic top 5 are always available, local craft breweries such as Cigar City, Tampa Bay Brewing, and Orlando Brewing, as well as national craft breweries such as Dogfish Head, Terrapin, Sierra Nevada, and Brooklyn, make up a plethora of malty choices in a previously bland world.

The community concept is also simple, yet always evolving … Members can brew at TFS as often as they like using a 15 gallon rig. The beer is fermented, kegged, and then put on tap, where anyone can visit the tasting room, purchase a glass, and sample as much beer as they would like. There are currently over 40 brewing members who regularly contribute. It’s great not only for first time brewers who want to get their “feet wet” without spending hundreds of dollars on equipment, but also for experienced homebrewers to experiment with recipes, use larger equipment, learn new brewing techniques, and/or brew together with David or any other member. Not to mention a great way to get YOUR beer out THERE. For any aspiring homebrewer who wants to take it to the next level, that is huge.

“Taps from Scratch is all about spotlighting the talent we have here in Orlando from a homebrewing perspective,” said David “We want those members brewing beer on our system to staff the taps. We don’t want that to be all our beer – we want it to be other people’s beer. Beer that’s indigenous to the community’s taste, to the neighborhood’s taste. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Another great way to utilize this concept is to brew your own beer for a large event. My new hubby and I just brewed a Belgian Golden Strong Ale for our wedding to go in a pub-hub along with kegs of Dogfish Head Aprihop, a Weyerbacher Quad, and a Terrapin Moo-Hoo. So much for boring wedding beer, right?

Not only is this concept a way for the brewers to display their art, but TFS has also evolved into a community brewery, a neighborhood taproom, a learning facility, and an artistic stronghold. Local artists are always showcasing their talent in the ever-changing rooms that make up TFS. There are local musicians playing on many if not MOST nights… even the tiles in the ceiling are hand painted by the customers. 

Taps from Scratch is the kind of place where creativity and community thrive. Most of us live in a world where we can’t name three of our neighbors… but not in THIS neighborhood.