Brewery stop number five took place a few miles and a few minutes from the previous brewery stop, Ormond Brewing Company. Tomoka Brewery is also located in Ormond Beach, or as we learned in the previous post “Ormond we don’t need no stinkin’ food trucks Beach“. This works out quite well for the Tomoka Brewery as they serve some delicious food in addition to their tasty beer.
Tomoka Brewery – Front Door
Tomoka Brewery opened in 2013 and is located on Granada Blvd, just a block or two from the intersection of A1A and Granada . Nice location close to the beach (and NOT in a warehouse district!) Based on the bottle cap mural on the wall, I am assuming that the Tomoka Brewery is named after the nearby Tomoka River. The Tomoka River is named for the indigenous Northeast Florida Indian tribe, the Timucua. Early Spanish and French explorers couldn’t pronounce Timucua, so the name became Tomoka. And as a little bar bet, the Tomoka River is one of two north flowing rivers that go through (or touch) Volusia County, the St. Johns River being the second.
But on to the beer and food! When we were at the brewery, they had 3 or 4 of their own beers on tap with a few other guest taps available. I thought I took a picture of the chalkboard beer lineup but I was too busy having a good time with The Hoppy Girl, some of the other guests, and the employees behind the bar. Nice warm friendly atmosphere. The first beer I had was a Kumquat Sour (4.5%) which was really a nice balance of sourness to fruitiness. In my untrained mouth, it had just the right ‘puckerage’. The second beer I had was Jen’s Gin Saison (7.2%). I’m hit or miss on saison styles. Some of them are fine, while others are a one and done. My initial tastes were that this was going to be on my don’t have again list, but by the end of the glass it was better. I would have both of them again but the Kumquat Sour was my favorite.
Kumquat Sour
Tomoka Brewery is licensed as a Brewpub so they also have food available. For this visit we ordered the cheese plate as we needed something to eat but didn’t want to get too full. On a previous visit we had one of the specialty pizzas and I can say that it was delicious. But we weren’t looking for quite that much food so the cheese plate turned out to be perfect. A couple of cheese varieties, crackers, fruit, nuts, and some pickled goodies. It was just the right amount for the two of us. Though next time, pile some more of those pickled goodies on there!
The back door that more people use than the front door
Within the last few days, Tomoka Brewery has opened a second location in Pt. Orange FL (a few miles south of Ormond Beach). I will be stopping at that location in the coming weeks.
*Tomoka State Park is located nearby on the Tomoka River. Within the park there is a large statue of a Tomoka Chief named Chief Tomokie. I had seen this statue years ago and had always assumed that the park and river (and now brewery) were named for this Chief Tomokie. But while researching this story (ha, drinking beer and eating is now research!) I discovered that the statue depicts an entirely fictional Indian chief. In other words there never was a Chief Tomokie. I guess it was all just a jokie.
Tomoka Brewery
188 E. Granada Blvd.
Ormond Beach, FL 32176
www.tomokabrewery.com