Brewery 10: Florida Beer Company, Cape Canaveral, FL

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Brewery number ten on the 2015 Florida Brewery tour is the Florida Beer Company in Cape Canaveral FL. The Florida Beer Company started as the Indian River Brewing Company in 1996 which makes it one of the older craft breweries in Florida. And in terms of production it is one of the largest in the state of Florida. In 2014, the Florida Beer Company opened a large tasting room at its brewery just a couple of miles from the busy cruise ship terminals in Port Canaveral. Port Canaveral is the third busiest cruise ship port in the world. Which begs the question, why aren’t there more Florida Beer Company products on the cruise ships ? Oh well, more for me on land I guess.

The Hoppy Girl and I stopped by recently while on our way to the Belgian Beer Fest at Coasters in Melbourne. The first thought that crossed my mind was how large the tasting room was. A very large circular bar in the center of the room with quite a few tables near the large observation windows looking into the brewery. The walls were painted in several large marine life murals. A real under the sea feel. For my first beer I went with the Scottish Ale (6.5%). I’ve had quite a few beers from the Florida Beer Company  but had never even seen this one before. The beer itself had nice flavors, but I thought it was just a bit  ‘thin’. It still tasted good, but I was  expecting a bit more fullness to the beer. My second beer was a pumpkin beer called Gourd Shorts (6.2%). Lots of surfing in the area hence the play on the term board shorts. This one was really good. Nice pumpkin flavor, without being too sweet or too spicy (as in pumpkin pie spicy not hot pepper spicy!). I would get this one again in a heartbeat. I also sampled both of Jill’s beers, Devils Triangle IPA (6.66%….ha, 666..Devils Triangle…nice) and Gaspar’s Porter (6.1%). All four of the beers I tried were good and I would order any of them again. Gourd Shorts was my favorite .

 

If you’ve  been to Universal Studios (Orlando) Springfield area and had a ‘Duff Beer’, then you’ve had a Florida Beer Company beer. I’ve not had a Duff Beer so don’t know how it tastes. I’m just glad that didn’t release a blended Duff Beer and a Gourd Shorts. Duffs Shorts just doesn’t have a good ring to it..

*Florida history factoid: The name Cape Canaveral comes from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, which means the cape of reed beds.

 

Florida Beer Company
200 Imperial Blvd
Cape Canaveral, Florida, 32920