This is finally the last entry in my St. Petersburg through Sarasota trip.  I am planning on heading over to Miami and Ft. Lauderdale in a couple of weeks, so the Wine and Dines and Pub and Grubs will have to hold you over for a while.  This week’s blog focuses on Sarasota Brewing Company.  The beers here were solid and the food was good food at a good price. However, the atmosphere was a little off for a microbrewery.  The place is sort of dark and dreary– reminding me more of a dive bar than a microbrewery.  The crowd was also a lot older than most breweries– we were by far the youngest people in the joint. Granted we did stop by on a Sunday afternoon but still it just seemed off.  The other customers didn’t appear to even be drinking the homemade brews but were sticking to the regular stuff.

The Sarasota Gold was yeasty and bready with a slight hop to the nose.  The Sequoia Amber didn’t have much nose but was a solid amber.  The Honey Mead Ale also didn’t have much nose but had a good taste of honey– a bit too sweet for me. The Ginger and Rosemary Spiced Lager was an unusual beer and to me the best.  You could smell the ginger on the nose and it tasted like fresh ginger. I really wanted a piece of sushi to try with this beer.  The Sarasota IPA had a hoppy but not piney nose as it is made with Summit hops (not my favorite hops).  There were slight sulfur undertones to this beer which I am not sure were intentional or were a flaw.  The Midnight Pass Porter had a toasty nose with a slightly burnt aftertaste making it a solid porter.  The Maibok had floral undertones with a yeasty, fermented taste and was not the best beer.

I have to say I would return to this brewery– not necessarily for the beer but for the food.  Prices were very reasonable and portions were large.  The staff was friendly and helpful, giving advice on beers as well as food.  I just have to reiterate that the atmosphere kind of threw me for a loop– not what I expect in a microbrewery.

I was lucky enough to have my first introduction to J Dubs a few weeks ago at a local craft beer festival. I was impressed that such good beer was coming out of Sarasota, so I had to make the effort to stop by on my way home from St. Petersburg.

J Dubs is to me the typical microbrewery– it sits a little off the beaten path in a light industrial building, is minimalist in terms of furnishings, and has a friendly staff and clientele.  This is the kind of place that makes me think that the priorities are right– beer is number 1.  The beers here don’t disappoint and the selection is quite good.

I am generally not a fan of “funky” beers where it seems the brewer just wants to create something to be different.  However, I have to say that J Dubs had a couple of these that I found intriguing.  The Honey Habanero was a altbier brewed with honey and habanero peppers. It was quite spicy but good.  Unfortunately, my gastrointestinal system doesn’t let me enjoy the spicy like I used to– so I only had a couple of sips.  The Ay Caramba was a much milder form of a pepper beer. This featured the Up Top IPA brewed with jalapenos. It had a very jalapeno nose but a surprisingly mild jalapeno flavor. I must point out I was there around Cinco de Mayo– hence the focus on peppers.

The Blonde de Tramp was a Belgian blonde with a very sweet floral nose and mild flavor. The House Pale Ale was surprisingly piney and hoppy for a pale ale as it was dry hopped with Chinook hops– this was my favorite beer here.  The Up Top IPA was my introduction to J Dubs and a good easy drinking IPA with mild hops.  The Kettle Monster was a collaboration done with Cigar City.  This beer had a light nose but a rich, burnt malt taste on the tongue. It left a solid, lingering aftertaste of a classic dark lager.

I must say I am waiting to see what future beers come out of this brewery.  Sarasota is really a quick hour and half drive on a bad day so it will be well worth another trip as they get their brewery up and going!

 

I had been hearing great things about Green Bench for quite some time.  Even while at other breweries in St. Pete, customers were telling me that I had to go to Green Bench and that they had some unusual and great beers.  Therefore, I had to make sure that I made it there.

My big problem with Green Bench is that it sits next to a police station– not an ideal location for a brewery.  However, that complaint has nothing to do with the beer.  I do find that some of their beers are just too unusual and they tend to go toward the sour side, which is not to my taste.  However, I can see why many others rave about these beers for the fact that they are unusual and they are quite good for sour beers.  They do have a wide selection of beers on tap at the brewery, so it is possible to find something for everyone. 

The Saison de Banc Vert has a herbal nose and is a bit sour with a Belgian undertones.  It is a very drinkable, summertime beer.The Whitted White IPA has a hint of hops also with Belgian undertones.  Skyway Wheat is very hoppy for a wheat beer. I don’t think I would recommend it to a wheat beer drinker but might be more suited to a pale ale or IPA lover.  If I had not know this was a wheat, I would have guessed it was a strong pale ale as the hops did overwhelm the wheat.  Le Banc Belge has good Belgian flavor. The Happy Hermit Pale Ale was a favorite with slight hops on the nose and a nice malty, slightly toasty taste.  Colliding Galaxies is apparently a collaboration with a local brewery here, Point Ybel (see previous blog posts).  It was a sour double IPA that was quite sour but did have the taste of hops, once you got past the sour. It wasn’t my favorite but I met several people who raved that this was the best beer at Green Bench.  Surrealist IPA was one of those beers that I am sure someone loves but it definitely wasn’t me.  Earlier that day I had eaten a grapefruit that was a bit rotten and all I could think of when I drank this beer was that grapefruit.  Not a fan of this one, but hey we can’t all like everything. The Saison de Banc Noir was also a Belgian inspired beer with a good herbal flavor– guessing at coriander.  Stay Dry Stout was coffee on the nose and burnt on the taste just like a good stout should be. Spring Bloom Double IPA was much better than the Surrealist with hints of lemon and grapefruit.  The Green Bench IPA had all the flavors to be expected in an American IPA but had a bit more malt than is typical; however, not a bad beer.

So what do I think of Green Bench… definitely worth a stop especially if you want to try something a little bit different or unusual.  Its always good to see a brewery that does a bit more than the pale ales, IPAs, stouts and porters.  Even if you find it is not really your thing, you have at least expanded your palate and experienced a new aspect of the craft beer world. 

I also have to mention the atmosphere here.  The place was hopping on a Saturday night and who doesn’t love a lively, casual bar filled with lots of beer lovers.  

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had no idea about the great downtown that could be found in St. Petersburg.  St. Pete Brewery (see earlier post) was just up the street from Cycle Brewery.  I visited Cycle a little later in the evening and the place was hopping. The best beer I had in St. Petersburg was here.  My only criticism is the trendy, ultramodern decor with lots of stainless and gray.  I much prefer to feel like I am in someone’s basement than in their garage.

In addition, I don’t quite understand how a brewery that is trying to be ultramodern doesn’t take credit cards.  I am no hipster, but even I rarely carry more than a few dollars in cash.  Most of the younger people I know (unless they work in the restaurant business) never carry cash.  So just remember if you go to Cycle to bring cash or at least an ATM card — or no beer for you.

Unfortunately, the place also didn’t offer samplers so I had to keep bothering the bartender for each individual one that I wanted to try.  Also, I couldn’t try all of them. Heads up to anyone opening a brewery a sampler is pretty much a must because most people have never had your beer. They are just going to have to keep bothering your staff because they don’t know what’s suited to their palate.

However, my criticisms are small and not really relevant to the real reason Cycle Brewery even exists– its beer. I started by trying the Ducky’s Pils.  I had to try this one as my dog’s name is Ducky. It was a good, light, solid Bohemian style pilsner.  My favorite beer of my entire trip was the M.S.L.A.B.  IPA.  The name stood for Most State Legislators Are Boneheads– poking fun at highly intelligent Florida Senate who tried to kill Florida’s craft beer industry during its session this year.  This IPA has a great piney taste and nose– probably not as balanced as many would like but I love a good pine tree. Chain Slap was a good imperial stout with a great coffee nose. Hashtag Yolo was a Baltic Porter that was very sweet and much sweeter than Chain Slap.  Pedal Brakes was a dry hopped pale ale that was a bit overly herbal to me.

I have to be fair to this brewery. The beers that I tried were great but there is some definite room for improvement– not necessarily in the beer but in the operations. I would definitely go back for the beer but find it a pain I have to remember to stop at an ATM first.

I have to admit I don’t remember that many of the beers at St. Pete Brewing Company. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.  We tend to remember things that are really bad and things that are really good. What this means is that I didn’t find any of the beers at St. Pete Brewing Company particularly bad or outstandingly good. Looking back over my notes, I wrote that many of the beers were typical or solid, meaning they embodied the traits of the style but didn’t go above and beyond. To me, this is a good thing.  The worst is to go out to a brewery expecting an IPA to be an IPA and instead be offered some odd contraption that the brewer interpreted as an IPA.  

St. Pete Orange Wheat was the first beer I tried here.  This is an easy drinking wheat beer with a slight nose of orange and a bit of orange on the tongue.  The wheat gives it a slightly bready flavor.  Great beer for hanging out on a summer day in Florida.

Milo’s IPA is named after a dog which instantly endeared me to this beer.  This was a good solid IPA that was on the less hoppy side. A great IPA for those not really into the hoppiness but want to be trendy and try an IPA.

Pinellas Pale Ale was a good pale ale with light hops and a bit of pine– perfect for a beer that is named PInellas which is derived from the Spanish word for pine. 

Grateful Stout was another good beer embodying what I think of as a stout. It has a good coffee like flavor. 

The Banyan Blonde didn’t have much nose but had the flavors typical of a Blonde Ale.

Evacuation Route ESB was another good solid beer embodying the flavors common to an ESB without overpowering bitterness. Not being a huge fan of ESBs, I was surprised to find that this one was so pleasing in taste. 

Overall the experience at St. Pete is satisfying.  You leave feeling you had beer that were typical of the style.  The atmosphere is also attractive, located downtown St. Petersburg. I actually didn’t even know that St. Petersburg had a real downtown until my visit.  I had always just seen the shopping malls along the interstate and figured it was “strip mall heaven” like Naples and most of Ft. Myers. I was pleasantly surprised to find a vibrant downtown with many restaurants and shops within easy walking distance of each other. So visit downtown St. Petersburg– two more breweries in downtown will appear in future blogs.