Florida has the inenviable position of having breweries that evoke the beach with a sort of a beachy feel, but are actually close to the beach.
I’m not saying like a couple of hours drive. I’m saying you can smell the salt water sitting in the tap room.
So, it’s not on the beach itself, but The Cove in Deerfield Beach is close enough to where it might as well be a Beachside brewery. To get to Deerfield Beach itself, all you have to do is cross over a bridge and drive up a block and you’re there.
That beach is actually the same location where the Ocean Brews and Blues Festival is held every year, which is always a good time (Check out our YouTube page for a bunch of interviews we did at last year’s event, including one with Cove Brewmaster Manny Jannes).
Cove Brewery is in The Cove shopping plaza, on the other side of the plaza from The Cove tiki bar and restaurant. While it’s a little confusing name-wise, it’s very easy to forget about all of that once you’re there.
The brewery itself has a great Coastal Florida feel, with light wood flooring and touches of sun washed colors around the tap room. In true Florida fashion, the bar has windows opening up to a service counter for the rather numerous outdoor seating options.
The brewing system itself is behind all of this. Framed in neon lined windows, being just on-stage provides not only an insight into brewing operations, but a fun pop of color at night.
As an added bonus, there is food service from the Asian concept next door, Won Tom’s. That restaurant was actually built with Cove Brewery in mind, as it has no actual seating itself, just a take out window and table service to brewery patrons.
As I mentioned before, the brewery is headed up by Manny Jannes, long time friend of the blog and formerly on the Florida Beer Podcast while at Black Flamingo. You’ll hear him and his brewer Tyler Immell very soon on the Florida Beer Podcast.
That being said, we are going to start talking about some beers. Here is what we were able to try during recording.
Pineapple Blonde (Blonde Ale, 6% ABV) is about as perfect a beach beer as you can get. With a nice crisp, light, golden color, the blonde ale provides just the right amount of pretty malt flavors that are lightly, but still noticeably, sweet with more sweetness coming from pineapple. It’s refreshing and just fruity enough to be a little different than a standard blonde. Absolutely amazing, a perfect year-round Beach Pier and the best lead off beer.
Helles (Helles Lager, 4.6% ABV) was pretty solid. A little bit closer to the blonde, I tend to notice some Helles Lagers get a little bit fruity; they toned it down a bit with this one. Still with a light body and crisp straw color that accentuated very little hop bitterness, just a lot of solid, all-around beer goodness.
Oktoberfest (Marzen, 4.8% ABV) – Yes. You are reading this correctly. This is not a typo, this is not one of my trademark reviews that was written half a year ago but I never pushed out, they had an Oktoberfest on tap. A Marzen to be correct, and Manny & Tyler were proud to do so, because not only is it a really wonderful style, but it moves pretty well in the tap room. I’m hoping this is the first step to people realizing this is not necessarily a seasonal beer, and their Oktoberfest is the perfect reason why. It’s got a moderate body, light and tasty caramel notes, with very low bitterness. In terms of mouthfeel and heaviness, it’s still light and refreshing, but with a lot of the solid Marzen flavors of caramel and a touch of apple. I’ll be excited to see what they do during actual Cktoberfest, but to see this year-round makes me very happy.
To be sure there is more coming from Cove, and my family has readily stated this is a place they want to go back to again just to soak in the vibe and have some tasty dishes. While it took a very long time for me to finally get out there, hopefully seeing how wonderful it is means that it won’t take very long for me to get back.
Drink Florida Craft,
Dave
@floridabeerblog
[email protected]
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