The problem with Floridian beer

By Joey Redner
Published October 12, 2007

I recently notched my 128th rating of a beer brewed in Florida. I have had more Florida-brewed beers, but I did not bother to take notes on those.

I do not know if I have had more commercially brewed Florida beers than anyone else has, but I am sure I am among the tops because there just aren't very many more to be had. The simple fact is there is not a huge variety when it comes to beers brewed in Florida.

By comparison, I have kept notes on 182 California beers, despite never having stepped foot in California. Belgium has yielded 170 beers and I have scribbled lines about another 128 beers from Colorado. I have traveled the length of Florida several times in search of great beer, but there is only so much to be had.

Meanwhile, I can go to any local beer store and get a plethora of choices from as far off as California, New York or Colorado.

Florida has always been a little bit behind the curve. Across the nation, the popularity of craft beer has exploded and brew pubs and craft breweries are doing what the Bush administration has utterly failed to do - earning some respect for America around the world. America's beers are quickly becoming the best in the world - though not so much Florida's beers.

True, Florida leads the nation in provincial-minded politicians and negative stories posted to Fark.com, but our beer cred and successes trail far behind. Perhaps it is the abundance of laws that seem geared toward keeping the small batch brewer from succeeding. Florida's tax on a gallon of beer brewed in-state is the sixth highest in the nation.

Florida lacks the staple of brew pubs across the country, the growler. A growler is a half-gallon jug, which can be filled with beer fresh from the tap and taken home. As consumers have increasingly moved toward fresher local products, sales of growlers have boomed, but not in Florida, where they remain illegal.

Then there are the antiquated laws like the one that prevents retailers from sampling beer despite the fact that wine and liquor, which are both more potent than beer, on average, can be sampled. It all adds up to a huge hurdle for the little guy.

To be fair, Florida brewers have not always been their own best friends. Many Florida brewers have operated under the assumption that they had to "dumb down" their beers for the Florida market, which left many of the bigger and bolder styles like IPA, imperial stout and barley wines, as well as the esoteric sour ales and saisons out of the lineup. Yet many of these styles are the very ones that have spearheaded the growth for brewers across the United States.

In spite of these obstacles, a few Florida brewers have seen a degree of success. Recently we saw the opening of Saint Somewhere Brewing out of Tarpon Springs. The idea of a bay area brewer focusing only on Belgian-style ales, as Saint Somewhere does, would have been laughable five years ago. Even established brewers like Dunedin have stepped it up. New Dunedin head brewer Madison Roane has introduced an excellent dry stout along with a very tasty IPA and a barley wine. These styles were once conspicuously absent from Dunedin's lineup. Dunedin's IPA, part of their Brewer's Reserve series, has a massive hop profile and smells strongly of hops' shadier cousin, cannabis sativa.

Tampa Bay Brewing in Ybor continues to be Florida's most cutting edge brew pub, but with Dunedin stepping up, the bay area is solidly at the front of the pack in Florida.

- Joey Redner is a Tampa resident and world beer traveler.

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 14:33:55]