A Glass and Three Beers Came with the Open House
I don’t know if you know by now, but Florida is making waves in the beer brewing industry. No, we’re not Colorado, Portland, or Washington State, but instead of getting beat on by the big boys, Floridians have something to hang their proverbial hat on.
Cold Storage Craft Brewery is one of the newer breweries to come on to the Florida scene as they opened last November in the Seminole Heights District of Tampa. They opened in a rather unassuming vacant grocery store on N. Florida Ave.
This past Saturday they held an open house, not to make money, but to expose their beer to more and more folks. And they definitely achieved that goal because their place was packed! They had their three beers on tap: Ale, Blueberry, and the India Pale Ale (IPA). Being a IPA fan I stuck with the IPA, which was designed by CSB to be a lighter IPA catered to Florida’s hot weather. The ale which started it all for them, was a beer that you could drink all day long and probably not feel the effects. (Not that I’ve tried thatJ)
I stuck around for about two hours yukking it up with the son-in-law of the owner. The stories he told me about how the place got started was amazing. It was about being at the right place at the right time and having the balls to make the jump.
The time on Saturday aside, the only negative for me is that they aren’t open all the time because they don’t have a liquor license. When I asked some of the staff if they were pursuing a license, they kinda hem hawed around with an answer, which makes this veteran stringer think there’s more to this story than they are letting on. I covet a brewery, other than Tampa Bay Brewing Co (which is phenomenal), on this side of town. Driving to Cigar City is getting to be a little too far away.
Look up Cold Storage Craft Brewery on Facebook to find out when their next open house is going to be because that might be the only way you’re going to find their beer on tap. Otherwise, you’ll have to look in Publix or other Florida supermarkets to find their tasty brews in a bottle.
The next open house is September 17th. So mark you calendars!
Have any of you tried Cold Storage Brews? Thoughts?
PS. If anyone from Cold Storage Brewery reads this little ol’ blog, I’d love to do an interview with you. Think about it. Really.
