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.