Inside Alestreet
Inside Ale Street
"Great beer pairs with most anything -- food, cigars, cheese, chocolate, you name it."
| Florida Incognito |
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| Written by Tony Forder | |||
| Friday, 25 February 2011 18:44 | |||
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It’s hard to take a vacation from beer. First, why would you want to? Well, I work in beer 24-7, so??? Well, I tried, a few days in Florida…winter break for my teacher wife and high school senior daughter. In the Orlando area accommodations were courtesy of a time-share offer. We duly sat through our time-share presentation, turning it down as politely as we could.We immediately cashed our $50 voucher on groceries to stock our condo. I bought a six-pack of Sierra Nevada Glissade (golden bock) and a six of Terrapin Hopsecutioner IPA, a couple of bottles of wine, and I prepared to chill at our condo resort, six miles from Disney. Our second day, the Sunday of Presidents Day weekend, the wife was already getting antsy. She can only sit by the pool so long! Our daughter and friend were in the Magic Kingdom for the day and we did have a rental car. In a tourist magazine, she read about a Tiffany glass exhibit at the Morse Museum in Winter Park. I google-mapped it -- north of Orlando, about 45 mins away, maybe more with traffic…”You go ahead,” I said, “I’m not really interested.” Then it occurred to me that we could stop in Orlando on the way back for a beer at Orlando Brewing Co. OK, this wasn’t going to be a completely beer-free trip. Those guys are in our directory, after all. “Ok, I guess I’ll come,” I said. On the way I remembered we had a news item in the recent ASN about Shipyard opening an Emporium – I thought in Orlando – I looked it up to find that their brewpub, bakery, store had actually opened in Winter Park! I spotted it on the way into town, a nice looking building, it had previously been an Italian Deli we were told. Winter Park, home of Rollins College, is a cute town, if maybe a bit shi shi; we strolled down the main street to the museum…tons of boutiques and al fresco dining, lots of wine glasses being quaffed…I saw beer too – Amstel Light, oh well. A couple of gals were modeling wedding dresses outside a bridal boutique. The museum itself was very cool. A new Tiffany exhibit had opened the day before…it was popular and it was free…another bonus. That Louis Comfort Tiffany guy was one interesting, and artistic dude. The most impressive exhibit was a room devoted to an altar Tiffany had created for a chapel complete with Dali-esque, 3-D, electric light cross. Art appreciation duly executed, it was time for beer. I first checked out the beer retail section of the Shipyard Emporium… wow, great selection. Walking through the bar to the outdoors I locked eyes with a beer dude I recognized. “Tony?” he said. “Ron,” I said. We had met a coupla times before. Indeed the last time I visited Orlando, 13 years ago, Ron Raike was brewing for Shipyard right in Orlando airport. I remember him explaining the rigors of malt delivery in an airport. Well, 9-11 put the kibosh on all of that…! Ron’s got a one-and-a-half barrel system for specialties…and all the Shipyard regulars plus guests are on tap. The beers in the store Left Hand, Terrapin, Cigar City, St. Somehere, for example, are ones Shipyard distributes in Florida. Ron brought us a sampler –Cigar City High Life IPA, Cottonmouth Wheat from Swamphead in Gainesville, Shipyard’s Double Thumper, and Menage a Palm a low gravity porter-stout blend that Ron aged in a whiskey barrel from local distiller Palm. Ron introduced us to the Cigar City rep Justin Clark sitting with a bunch o’ guys at what has obviously become the de facto geek table at the Emporium. Zach Schuster from Florida Micro Beverage Dsitributors was there, a couple of homebrewers… a tatted guy pulled up on a Harley – Brent, the manager of Red Light, Red Light , one of the newer and better beers bars in the Orlando area. They all assumed that we, like they, were headed to the Cigar City beer dinner at The Ravenous Pig, also in Winter Park. I had to confess I wasn’t on a beer trip; it was sold out anyway. As usual, happenstance and synergy are my gurus. It was fun to fall into Florida pre-beer dinner session. After we picked the youngsters up from Disney, we hit Big River Brewing on the Disney Boardwalk. The place looked like it had had a rough weekend, but, the beers were good, especially the cask orange peel pale ale. Compared to the last time I was in Florida, there seems to be a lot of good beer stuff going on around Orlando. Alas, I was not able to get to Orlando Brewing Co….next time John.
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| Last Updated on Friday, 25 February 2011 18:47 |