As we’ve mentioned before in posts about craft beer from Oregon to Michigan to Arizona to Ft. Lauderdale, there’s been a real explosion in choices and sales of good beer in the USA. This stat kind of says it all: In the year 2000 there were 20 breweries and brewpubs total in Florida, but as of July 2016 there were 60 just in Tampa Bay.
Head to Denver or Portland and it’s hard to even count them anymore. Even last place North Dakota has 12 breweries. We’re so spoiled for choice now that breweries are running out of names and going to court over trademark infringement. It’s almost as challenging as naming your new band.
I just attended the Beer Bloggers and Writers Conference held in Tampa last week (hey, somebody’s gotta do it) and found an industry that’s still feeling confident, despite the intense competition. That’s partly because there’s still so much room for growth. Even though beer sales in general were a shade below flat last year, microbrewery sales grew 24.2% and regional craft beers gained 11.3%. How can that be? Well they’re collectively taking a big chunk of sales away from the big mass brewers. People are voting with their wallets, even though it’s costing them more, and drinking brews of better quality.The prices of wine and spirits have been relatively flat the past decade. The average prices paid for beer though have risen by 14%. Yet that’s the healthiest beverage of the three–the only one keeping up with population growth.
It took a while for the momentum to really get going (#1 Sam Adams was founded in 1984 and #2 Sierra Nevada in 1979), but it looks like this train is unstoppable now. It’s hard to stomach a Bud Light after you’ve had pretty much anything from Green Flash.
That fine company from San Diego sponsored the first party of the event and they delivered their usual A-game. Even the strange brews were great (Passion Fruit Kicker and Dia de los Serranos double stout with chili peppers) and the hoppy ales they’ve long been known for are some of the best around. The West Coast IPA is usually the easiest to find and you’ll be glad you ordered it.
Then came a dinner where four breweries served two beers and two dishes. The idea was to show how well they went together in pairings. Succeeding the best on that was St. Petersburg, FL relative newcomer Green Bench Brewing, whose signature IPA managed to pair really well with a citrus scallop dish and cheesecake. The least favorite for everyone at my table was the French Toast Double Brown Ale from Funky Buddha, which didn’t go well with anything—including itself. Rounding it out were two other Tampa favorites, Cigar City and Coppertail. Both are deservedly famous in the region. The first is one of the 50 largest brewers in the country, despite getting 95% of its sales from Florida. They will be expanding too: they just did a deal with Oskar Blues of Colorado to pull in more cash.
Then we moved on to another room where a whole slew of other craft beers were waiting, including the legendary Rogue Ales and Spirits. (See a previous post on the Portland Brewcycle.) I got to taste their Rolling Thunder Imperials Stout which is heavenly and an IPA made with four different types of hops. I gave sour beers another shot with Petrus, but decided I still would never order one in a bar. I had something even rarer though that I did like: a real bonafide Czech-style pilsner from Coppertail. You don’t see many of those from a craft brewery. Market 48, Dogfish, and Uinta were some of the others that I tried. 
Unfortunately, I had to miss the live beer blogging event the next day that brought on another 20 breweries, including Terrapin, New Belgium, and Lagunitas. You’ll have to check out a dedicated beer blog for a report on highlights from that.
Besides learning a lot about craft beer in a less random fashion than usual though, I also discovered that there’s a Jax Ale Trail in Jacksonville, Florida. More on that later I hope!
