Anne and I were up in Dunedin on Sunday to do a little holiday shopping as well as checking out the latest craft brewery to open in the Tampa Bay area. Seventh Sun Brewing Company, owned by Justin Stange and Devon Kreps, officially opened this past Friday evening. Taking a back to basics [...]
Anne and I made the most of our last couple of days of vacationing in Maryland. After visiting the DFH Alehouse on Saturday afternoon, we met out friends Mike and Sue at the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company that evening. One of my old haunts way back when, it specializes in brewing German style ales and [...]
My friend Brad and I hit the Cock & Bull the other night, and one of the featured beers was a Flanders red ale. Reportedly retired, it was on tap here and has increasingly been seen in bottles at various pubs and beer stores. Bourgogne Des Flandres (Brouwerij Timmermans John Martin N.V.; Itterbeek, Belgium; Flanders [...]
The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is one of the world’s best. From Sue, the world’s largest T-Rex, to the infamous man-eating Lions of Tsavo, the FMNH exhibits a remarkable collection from the natural world. And I made a discovery of my own later in the day. De Proef Signature Les Deux Brasseurs [...]
Anne and I were in Orlando for the day, when we decided to hit a couple of spots. One of them was a place ranked as the World’s #3 Brewpub by Rate Beer. Redlight Redlight, owned by Brent Hernandez and Richard Sherfey, not only met my expectations, it exceeded them. With 25 beers on tap [...]
This Saturday marks the second anniversary of Billy’s Beer Blog. To mark the occasion, I’ve decided to do an updated version of my Ultimate Case. While I’m keeping two of my three rules from a year ago – no retired beers and a limit of one beer per brewery – I’m dropping the ban on [...]
Marzens tend to be traditional Fall beers, but I had the chance to try a different take on this beer style at Crum’s Bar and Grill recently. Cigar City Marzen Spring Lager (Cigar City Brewing; Tampa, FL; Marzen; ABV: 5.5) is also known as Cigar City Oktoberfest Marzen when it’s released during the autumn months. [...]
You can add Crum’s Bar and Grill to a growing list of exceptional brewpubs in the Tampa Bay area. Located in downtown St. Petersburg, and owned by Chris Crum and Lanette Miller, Crum’s Bar and Grill offers craft beer, food, and live music in a hip casual setting. Speaking of which, there’s 52 selections of [...]
The last time I was at the Cigar City Brewing Tasting Room in Tampa, I learned something new. Did you know that bats pollinate blue agave plants, which provide the ingredient found in tequila? So it’s fitting that I tried a double cream ale, named for the bat, that’s aged in tequila barrels. Cigar City [...]