Road Trip/Pub Crawl 2000 - the Tradition Continues
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Last year we got on the bus for a pub-crawl to St. Augustine and Jacksonville. We had a terrific time and vowed to make it a tradition. Well, I guess with the completion of the second Road Trip/Pub Crawl it has now officially become a tradition. As with all great traditions, we are building on the past and improving things as we go. Last year we had 17 people on the bus, this year we had 44. The bus holds 47, so we were pretty damn near full.
In addition to the cast of usual suspects from the Hogtown Brewers and a number of local guests; we were also joined by Ken, Steve and Pete from the Tallahassee club, the North Florida Brewers League. Once we got to Tampa, we picked up KK Koenig, his wife Cathy and a bunch of other members of the Dunedin Brewers Guild, as well as a few from the Sarasota brew club. I think it made the trip even more enjoyable to be able to share it with others in the Florida home brewing community.
We got off to a slow start. The bus was supposed to be at Market Street by 9:30 and we were supposed to roll at 10am. We all showed up before 10, but no bus. Everyone milled around the parking lot, paying Wayne for the bus trip and buying up most of the remaining stock of HB t-shirts. In fact, Donna had paid for both herself and Lisa (the evil twins Betty and Veronica were slated to ride again). But it turned out that Lisa didn't go on the pub-crawl - Donna traded her for a t-shirt. Anyhow, I got on JS's cell phone to find out where the bus was just as it finally pulled into the lot. Apparently, they were having mechanical problems with the fuel injection. They had tried unsuccessfully to find another bus. The driver told us that he was pretty sure it would make it, just a little slowly. So we decided to give it a shot, and off we went on our adventure.
Someone said that bus put the 'crawl' into pub-crawl. We barely went 50, maybe 55 tops. We were passed by everything on the road. Well, almost everything - when we finally passed a slow motor home everyone cheered. About halfway down, we ran into a torrential tropical downpour. At least we didn't have to slow down like everyone else - we were already slow! But eventually we got to Tampa and met up with the Dunedin crowd at Bilmer Station, a great beer bar with a huge selection of beers, many of them on tap. After a number of liters and pints, we climbed back on the bus and headed to the Ybor City area for our next stop, the Tampa Bay Brewing Company.
Vicki Doble and her son John, the brewer, run Tampa Bay Brewing. They welcomed us to the brewpub for lunch and some great beer. One favorite was the cask conditioned IPA; the barley wine wasn't bad either. The food was good and the beer was better. We were met here by Jeff Gladish of the Tampa Bay Beers. I delivered the Bronze Medal that Jeff had won at the AHA Nationals for his smoked braggot. Jeff generously opened up several bottles of the winning braggot. It was easy to see why it did so well, what a treat! Everyone enjoyed themselves and all too quickly it was time to get back on the bus to go to our next stop, Ybor City Brewing Company.
YCBC is the largest and most successful microbrewery in the state. It is housed in an old cigar factory. We had a brief tour; unfortunately they had spilled some acid earlier in the day so we weren't able to get up close and personal with the equipment. However, they made it up to us by opening their tasting room for some complimentary beer. Pretty soon KK was ringing the bell to get us back on the bus and on to the next stop - across the causeway to Clearwater and on to the World of Beer.
The World of Beer is a small retail beer store in a strip mall. But once you step inside, the selection of beer is truly staggering, over 325 beers to choose from. Somehow we made our choices, purchased our beery treasures and loaded them up on the bus. We then headed a bit north to our next stop, Hopper's Brooker Creek Grille. Brooker Creek is also in a strip mall, but once we got inside and saw the beautiful Czech stainless brewing system and tasted the beer that Austrian brewer Franz makes in the tiny brewhaus, we realized we were in for a treat. Franz has won a gold medal for his Bavarian Pilsner at the GABF and that wasn't even my favorite beer. I truly enjoyed his hoppy Gator Ale.
All too soon it was time to board the bus again and head on to our last stop, the Dunedin Brewery. Well, actually Dunedin Brewery was both our last and next-to-last stop. We first visited their old site (where they are currently brewing), and sampled some of their beers. We then went to see their almost completed new facility. The construction is done, the mash tun and boil kettle are in place, and they are awaiting the imminent delivery of their new fermenters. Looks like things are going well for them. They are trying to expand their distribution area, so we have that to look forward to.
Due to the mechanical problems, our whole timing schedule had been thrown off. So it was after 9:00 by the time we left Dunedin Brewery. We decided to have dinner in Dunedin before heading home. After dinner, we said goodbye to the Dunedin Brewers Guild and headed north. We were met part way back by a replacement bus (sure wish we had gotten the replacement earlier!). By the time we got back to Gville it was 2:00, closing time at all the bars.
Despite the late hour, none of us turned into pumpkins and I didn't hear any complaints - but I do think we pushed the late factor a bit. Next year we'll limit the stops to three, or four at most. That way we'll be able to spend more time at each stop. It's not too early to start thinking about the destination for Road Trip/Pub Crawl 2001. Where would you like to go, Orlando, Savannah, Seattle, Belgium ???