The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [173]
PHILOSOPHY
For the aficionado with a heavy beer blog habit.
KEY BEER
Cigar City’s 5.5% ABV Maduro Brown, a sweet, slightly nutty and fulsome beer.
DeLand
ABBEY WINE & BEER BAR
117 N. Woodland Blvd. • DeLand, FL 32720 • (386) 734–4545 abbeydeland.com • Established: 2006
SCENE & STORY
This upscale beer-and-wine bar about twenty minutes from Daytona Beach has parchment-colored walls, handsome terracotta tile floors, recessed lighting, and eighteen taps with a focus on the rare and hard-to-find Belgian variety. There are 150 beers in bottles including the six Trappist beers available in this country (the seventh, Westvleteren is well-nigh impossible to obtain without traveling to Belgium).
PHILOSOPHY
The owners focus on recommending pairings, including vintage ales and other specialties, to go with a rotating menu of sandwiches and other simple fare.
KEY BEER
Where else will you find the extraordinary Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux? A strong saison from Belgium (9.5% ABV) that is hazy gold in color, fruity, and vinous in flavor, with a dry earthy kick in the finish, it’s worth a trip inland from the beach.
ABRAXAS LOUNGE
407 Meridian Ave. • Miami Beach, FL 33139 • (305) 534–9005 myspace.com/abraxaslounge • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
In club-filled South Beach a hop skip and a jump from Ocean Drive, the last thing one expects to find is a beer serving rare Belgian farmhouse ales, much less a beer scene taking shape. But that’s exactly what ponytailed Colombian beer lover Diego Escobar has created with Abraxas (named for the classic Santana album), a hidden lounge with a serious beer list and Modish 70s vibe (white couches—bold choice, amigo).
PHILOSOPHY
It’s dark and candlelit, but no Biscayne Bay, where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day (to paraphrase the classic Steely Dan song Dr. Wu). Expect nightly crowds keyed up on jazz, indie, rock and a well-balanced beers as sought-after as Dupont, Russian River, and various Mikkeller one-offs.
KEY BEER
Saison Athene, at 7.5% ABV, is Tarpon Springs brewery Saint Somewhere’s contribution to the mustardy-gold style. Brewer Bob Sylvester is getting it right: fermented at higher temperatures (thanks, Florida), it’s got big, interesting layers of fruity complexity.
BEST of the REST: FLORIDA
DATZ
2616 S. Macdill Ave. • Tampa, FL 33629 • (813) 831–7000 • datztampa.com
A combination bottle shop, deli, gourmet market, and beer bar with chef demonstration classes, fabled sandwiches, and twenty-six rotating taps including Soggy Loaf, a spicy, roasty pumpernickel rye porter brewed expressly for the bar by Cigar City Brewing, Datz is one of Florida’s top beer destinations.
RED LIGHT, RED LIGHT
745 Bennett Rd. • Orlando, FL 32803 • (407) 893–9832 • www.myspace.com/theredlightredlight
The hometown of Disney World is also home to a world-class but ultra down-to-earth beer bar with a supercurated beer list comprised of American micros and special European finds. Established in 2005, its location recalls the setting for a 1970s movie car chase, but inside the bar is cozy, with brewery-sign-dotted dark walls and a vividly tiled back bar. The tap row runs to twenty-three taps and two engines, plus another hundred or so in bottles at any given time, like Kulmbacher’s roasty Mönchshof Schwarzbier, light but flavorful (4.9% ABV).
TEQUESTA BREWING CO.
287 S US HWY 1 • Tequesta, FL 33469 • (561) 745–5000 • info via FaceBook.com
With its club-like Windex blue night lighting, jostling weekend crowds, and flat screens, Tequesta eschews the olden days vibe for a club-like narrow tasting room and growler filling station attached to the brewery, which is helping bring craft beer to South Florida in a bold way. Look for beers like Big Hitter Double