Reunion at Jdub's: A Brewery Review

Life moves too fast. People move away, leave, get new jobs and stop calling. It happens all the time, and we can't stop it. But, if you're like me, a phone call or text from a friend you haven't seen in a long time really brightens up a dull week.

So, when Randy, a friend I haven't seen in a few years, asked me to meet him at a brewery in Sarasota called Jdub's I was in.

Jdub's is located out in Sarasota, Florida. It's an hour away from me, over the sky-way. I'd drive farther for a chance of catching up and good beer. 

The entrance to Jdub's

Jdub's atmosphere is very Florida. It has a lot of sunshine and palm trees, but there is an underlying current of insanity.

You get it. 

The main room can be seen in the picture at the top. The bar runs down the right side, they serve around 10 beers on tap, and normally have something new every week. There are a few tables in the main room, which offers wide windows into the brewery on the left. If you arrive early enough, you can drink a beer and watch the guys who made it hard at work making more.

Travelling through to the back, and exiting the door leads you to the beer garden. There are two separate patio areas to relax, a bit of ambiance with some hanging string lights. The garden itself is fenced in, and spacious. There is even room for a weekly yoga session meet up. Yes, you can do yoga in the same place you drink beer.

You can do Yoga when those benches get moved!

Let's talk beer. I sampled three different brews while I was there. I tried one of Jdub's flagship beers, the Up Top IPA. The Up Top has an abv of 6.5% . A solid IPA with notes of citrus and that delightfully shocking hop pop. Jdub's has begun canning the Up Top IPA and their Poolside Kolsch. These two beers are being sold at over 150 different places.

I also had the Das Alt, a German style Amber ale, it is a crisp beer with a bitter finish. Yet, the beer that really took my taste buds to town was the Cherry Vanilla Berliner Weisse. A sweet sour beer that is crafted with fresh cherries and vanilla beans. It was 3.9%ABV, and the flavor was excellent.

The beer in the Snifter glass on the right is the Cherry Vanilla Berliner Weisse. 

The beer and the atmosphere were really good, the bar felt comfortable, with a slight crowd. I spoke to Taylor Pogue, the social media marketer and bartender, he let me check out the brewing room.

Inside I walked with Raul Armengol, who is a co-owner of Jdub's. He helps to keep things running with the owner Jeremy Joerger. Raul walked me around the brewing space and told me what was what.

Jdub's has been in business for just under 2 years. They have already grown more than original business plan and are considering expanding. Currently they are running two separate barrel systems. The first is a three barrel that allows them to create smaller batches of beer for the taproom. Because the system is small, they can afford to be a bit more inventive with the beers that decide to craft. 

There is also a 15 barrel system that takes up most of the space inside the brewery. The larger system crafts for their distribution side. As I said earlier, Jdub's is beginning to distribute to 150 other places. They are getting their beer shelved by larger companies like Total Wine and ABC Liquor. 

 

"We want to make the beer we like to drink," says Raul, "Our motto says it all: we strive for quality, innovation, and culture." 

Raul hinted about two new "flagship" beers that Jdub's hopes to get out. These beers will be canned and distributed as well. Hopefully news on that comes soon.

I'll wrap us up here by saying that Jdub's is a step in the right direction. I spoke to Taylor about the why "connecting with the community" is important to Jdub's. 

"We want to give back to the community, and let them know that we care." he replied. Jdub's is running a Street Team, which is a group of about 15 people who get together to provide help to the community. They help food kitchens for a day, or work with habitat for humanity. After the work is done, the crew meets at the brewery to enjoy a keg of beer for free. 

It's small projects like this that help provide recognition for breweries in the best way possible. I like the idea a lot, and was impressed by the creative ways Jdub's provides events at their brewery. I mean, I can't get over it, Yoga day!

Taylor Pogue, social media and taproom guy! 

Take a Seat at Green Bench Brewing: A Review

It was a quiet Thursday night, people in scattered groups enjoying a few after work beers.There was a crisp breeze keeping cool those who decided to sit outside on the fine wooden tables under hanging string lights.

I was excited: another brewery review. It's been over a month since I visited Rapp Brewing in Seminole. Now, I'm just a little closer to home. For this week I decided to visit

Green Bench Brewing Company

Green Bench is pretty easy to find, at 1133 Baum Ave, right off of Central Ave. Just outside of Downtown.

I'm not really into the hustle of the bar scene that is prevalent in downtown St Pete. More often, I would rather sit and have a nice conversation with good people. This brewery caters nicely to that with their outside beer garden.

Photo credit: Keep St Pete Local

November is a great month to get down there: sitting in a lawn chair with a cold beer, the crisp air and a slightly cloudy sky, make for a serene night. Green Bench also runs a few movie nights on the brick walls that line the beer garden. Here's a link (They even have a Walking Dead night if you're into that sort of thing)

Connected to the beer garden is a over-head covered patio with long wooden tables. Groups can gather and get goofy, discussing the merits of IBC Root Beer's "crafty-ness"

Moving inside there is a lot of space. Along the front wall are long windows that face Central Avenue. The bar also has glass windows that expose the brewery behind it.

Photo Credit: I Love the Burg Blog

Now, all of this is great. I mean, atmosphere counts for so much when you're looking for a place to drink with a few friends. But, let's talk about something that's more important... How is the beer?

This is the Sunshine City IPA

They have a constant rotation of fantastic beers. A few shout outs are the Surrealist IPA, a sour IPA made with grapefruit; their Middle Eastern Brown ale, crafted with Yemeni spices, dates, raisins and allepo peppers which gives it a subtle almost curry spice; and their Stay Dry Stout, which is one of the most drinkable stouts I've ever had.

With a 15 barrel system it is no wonder they have so many beers on tap.

Green Bench is also reaching out into distributing their beer around the country. They have signed a deal with Shelton Bros. Distribution to get their cans out into retail stores. Right now, if you're in certain parts of Florida you can find Green Bench beers in ABC Liquor and Total Wine.

But, I have to say the most impressive piece of equipment in the brewery is their foeder.

This foedor is made of Oak wood, more specifically 75% French Oak, and 25% American Oak. This foedor will be used to craft their Belgian ales, with a specific Belgian strain of yeast.

The nice thing about using the wooden foeder is that with each brew, the yeast will soak into the wood saturating it, and over time the beer taste will become more complex. 

Touring Green Bench was incredibly fun, and I have to thank Matt O'Conell for showing me around the brewery. He was informative and patient with me. 

Here is a quick look at the cans to come! I've been seeing them pop up around town, and hope to see a lot more:

That's a Rapp! Brewery Review

On Friday, September 18 I went to Rapp Brewing in Seminole, Florida.

Here's their Lovely Sign!

This is my first entry in my Florida brewery review series, and I couldn’t have made a better choice.

Rapp Brewing is a small established brewery in Florida who was ranked one of Florida’s best breweries in 2013 by RateBeer.com. They have also received multiple awards for their Gose and Munich Dunkel.

The brewery is separated into three parts: the taproom, an open warehouse sitting area, and a game room. The game room is also connected to the open warehouse, and towards the back of both rooms their brewing operation is set up.

`This Picture was taken from the Rapp Brewing Website

The taproom is an excellent but small space, and walking into the warehouse area opens up even more places to drink. My friends and I sat in the warehouse next to a window looking into the taproom. Above our heads large industrial fans circulated the air. The walls around us were an uncomfortable off white, but there were plenty of things to do to distract us from the color. Near us, towards the back room was shelving unit full of boards games, and in the other warehouse game room we could play darts, foosball, and corn hole.

This is the warehouse seating room, complemented by my glorious posse!

I sampled the DIPA dry hopped with mosaic which has a 10.9% alcohol volume. That is one of the strongest DIPA’s I’ve ever tried. DIPA stands for Double Indian Pale Ale, and if you’re not huge hops fan, the DIPA probably sounds like monstrous drink.

Yet, I have to say that I was floored by the fact that Rapp’s DIPA did not have that overpowering taste of hops. When I spoke to one of the brewers about the taste, he attributed the lack of striking hops taste to the 12 lbs of sugar they use to brew it.

This is one beautiful DIPA!

There was a food truck called Fork in the Road outside of Rapp brewing. Tasha, who along with Jake run the food truck, let me sample a bit of their Smoked Chipotle Chili. This chili was vegan, and crafted with Rapp’s Smoked Porter. The Chili was delicious, and I didn’t even miss the meat!

Fork in the Road Food Truck with Tasha and Jake!

Rapp brewing is very proud of their German influence, and it is apparent by their dedication to original German recipes. They also source many of their grains from Germany, aside from a few bags of American grains which they use for some American standard beers.

A good example of Rapp’s dedication to original German recipes is their Gose. The Gose is a 1,000 year old German recipe, and is in large part the centerpiece for the new sour beer trend. Gose’s sour taste stems from the inclusion of coriander and salt water in the brewing process. I will be doing a full write up on my opinion of Rapp Brewing’s Gose in an upcomingpost.

Big cup on the left is the Gose!

Rapp’s employees were incredibly kind to me, and when I told them that this was one of the first breweries I wanted to cover they asked me if I wanted a tour of their private brewing area.

I answered with an enthusiastic Yes!

I was led by one of their brewers, a man named Chris Seney. Chris told me he has been working with Rapp for three months, and that he began his career crafting brews at home.

This is Chris, he's busy at the moment.

The experience was enlightening, to say the least. Chris walked me through their brewing process step-by-step. Rapp Brewing has a two barrel system which can be small when compared to some of the larger breweries in the area. Yet, the two barrel system does not keep them from crafting a variety of beer. On the night I went to the brewery they were serving 20 different kinds.

The two barrels on the right are what consists of a Two Barrel System!

The variety that Rapp has can be attributed to their fermentation process. They use smaller plastic barrels which are set on wheels for easy transportation. The plastic barrels are smaller than their metal counterparts, and can be placed in more confined places. Rapp also has over 20 different strands of yeast, and an abundant variety of hops.

These are plastic, and easy to move.

In the past Rapp brewing has crafted over 90 different varieties of beer, and they are consistently looking to craft new entries to their lineup.

Rapp has plans to expand their barroom, and to do so they want to close off the tabled portion of the warehouse, so that more people can enjoy drinking in the AC. Their current plans of expansion do not include increasing their brewing space, and since distribution is not currently on the table they do not need to expand that part of the brewery, yet.

While touring the back, Chris had me taste the grains that Rapp brewing uses to craft their beer. I had never previously sampled grains. The experience was really interesting. Chris said that grains make up a large part of the taste for the beer. This was very apparent after I took a handful of grain to munch on. Grain actually tastes pretty good, and there is a lot of variety in the flavor.

I sampled a smooth caramel grain, and a very bitter chocolate one that helped to explain the taste of stouts.

These are the grains. They can be eaten. I ate them.

I could fill an essay with things I learned at Rapp Brewery, and their kindness and professionalism will have me coming back. It can be difficult to get up the courage to tell people that I am a beer blogger, but Rapp Brewing made it easy. I can now with all my senses intact suggest to any of my friends that they should give this place a shot.

Raise your glasses and have a great day!