So the interesting thing about beer festivals is sometimes breweries represent themselves and have their teams, equipment, etc. present to sample their wares.
Sometimes, beers from several different breweries are loaded onto a truck and sampled by their distributor.
I’m writing this at Bonita Beer Fest in Bonita Springs, which was about 70/30 in favor of local breweries. Since I absolutely had to, it was easy for me to try beers from some of the breweries whise beers were present, even if the brewery themselves were not there.
When presented with a whole list of beers from the Tampa area, there were others that I wanted to try, but my eye went straight for Florida Flavor (Hoppy Lager, 5.5% ABV, 30 IBU), a Lager from Calusa Brewing.
And my eye went there not because of the beer, which I was sure would be great. It wasn’t because of the brewery, who is very well regarded as fantastic. It was the label artwork.
This is because it uses that classic simple Florida, coastal, touristy, citrus-forward imagery that I adore so much. It’s a collaboration with The Florida Flavor, a lifestyle brand based out of Sarasota that focuses on the many hunters and fishers in the Sunshine State. The beer also won a gold medal for Hoppy Lager at Best Florida Beer in 2022.
To be honest with you, heading to this beer as my first of the festival was exactly the right choice. It’s a great way to start a beer fest, with a simple clean lager chocked full of Mosaic, Centennial, and Saphir hops to give a light fruitiness attached to a much more floral bouquet of hops. It was simple, very much light and very easy to drink.
Which is great, because I’m not going to try to drink a ton of beers today, but I’m sure that there will be quite a few given to me. In the meantime, let’s see what else I can try, and let’s enjoy the Sunshine State, shall we?
Drink Florida Craft,
Dave
@floridabeerblog
[email protected]
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