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Otto & the "littl'un" have fun in the sun, but still find time to ramble around the brewpubs of Florida. Starting with Brewzzi in West Palm Beach this is located on the second floor of a mall. It has a large indoor dinning area and you can see the brewery behind a glass enclosure, there is also an outside bar and a balcony area, which over looks the plaza.

They brew 6 delicious lagers and a seasonal. The beers were OK to good with the wheat beer being the best on the day. They brew an award winning dark ale but unfortunately they had sold out.

Then we drove down to Key West and found, "In My Opinion", probably the best brewpub in Florida, Kelly's Bar, and one which also offers first class dining. Located at Caroline and Whitehead the restaurant occupies the original home of Pan American Airways, and this is reflected in the decor.

Enjoy the true feel of Key West in a world of gardens and exquisite Caribbean food. Owned by Kelly McGinnis and her husband, 3 beers are brewed, an American Red, a Weiss Beer, and a lager with a seasonal. We hit the bar at the right time as Nina's Stout was the seasonal an Imperial Stout coming in at 7% a rich dark quaffable ale, Get there between 4pm and 7pm for the happy hour.

There is one large oval bar serving the entire pub, which opens out onto a tree shaded out side dining area. The bar has aeroplane paraphernalia all over i.e. propellers as fans.

The brewery is located at the back of the pub under the kitchen; the brew master is larger than life and has 2 parrots that he takes around with him.

Next off to Disney World, but fear not because on the Boardwalk there is a brewpub called the Big River Grill and Brewing Works which is part of the Gordon Biersch (who have another outlet in Miami) chain of brewpubs. It does 4 reasonable brews and good food and is some where to chill out with out the hustle and bustle of the main resort.

You can see how beer is brewed! This micro-brewery offers a glimpse into the beer-making process and provides samples of its award-winning handcrafted ales.

Also in Orlando is the Shipyard brewery, visit the web site http://www.shipyard.com/ they brew an excellent stout.

In Miami near to the university is the Titanic brewpub @ 5813 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Coral Gables this is an excellent pub with good quality food at a reasonably price. Beware the pub can be busy at the weekend and a little boisterous. On our visit we had a choice of 8 beers, we had 2 samplers that came on a tray that resembled a porthole. The best beer was the Belgian Wit beer that came in at 6.5% and was nice and spicy with a sharp finish. A close runner up was the Porthole Porter a 5% dark fruity brew.

Big Bear brew pub @ 1800 University drive Coral Springs has a massive selection of beers 12 on our visit the weakest of which was 5%. The average was around 6.5% luckily we had a designated driver so we could indulge ourselves in these potent brews. Again the Belgian wit beer was one of the best, also the stout was full of dry toasty coffee notes. This brewpub has won quite a few awards and I would recommend it to any one to visit, and they do good food as well.

Other brewpubs of note if you are in the Tampa Bay area are; Dunedin Brewery @ 937 Douglas Ave, a craft brewery located in the gulf coast Scottish heritage town of Dunedin, also Tampa Bay Brewing @ 1812 North 15th St. Tampa located in a 100 year old renovated horse stable in the historic Ybor area, it has 12 taps + cask conditioned ale and great sea food. Yuengling Brewery 11111 North 30th St. built in 1958 they do tours @ 10am & 1pm Mon - Fri One of the US's oldest craft breweries. Ybor City Brewing @ 2205 North 20th St. Tampa Bay's 1st micro is house din an old cigar factory built in 1894.

There are approx 4 Hops Restaurants / Breweries in Florida not really recommended brews are poor to fair in my experience but the one @ 2701 N Rocky Point Drive Tampa is one of the best and has won some awards for its brews.

A good web site to check out is http://www.floridabrewersguild.org/ Florida dose not have a lot of brewpubs but as you can see there is enough to keep you going for 2 weeks.

Keep spreading the word, cheers Otto.

USA

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