Berghoff Beer Hall will be coming to the new Artegon Marketplace (formerly Festival Bay) this spring. The new restaurant will feature a 20,000 square foot German beer hall as well as a 5,000 square foot outdoor beer garden. The original Berghoff Restaurant is located in Chicago and has been around since 1898. Berghoff Brewing has been around for 127 years and has gone through a number of changes in the past several years. According to a recent article in the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, craft beer gurus John Hannafan and Randy Mosher are involved with Berghoff and are spearheading its efforts to expand. Mosher has written a number of books about beer. His Tasting Beer is practically a required read for beer enthusiasts studying for their cicerone certification. Hannafan is the director of education at the Siebel Institute of Technology and World Brewing Academy and plays an instrumental role in crafting the recipes for the beers.
There are a couple of really nice signs outside the place but it doesn't appear that the buildout has begun yet on the new restaurant and beer hall. We will keep you posted as soon as we find out more.
4 Comments
Orlando Beer Guide had an opportunity to stop by and check out the new Hourglass Brewery in Longwood this past week. The expanded new brewery and tasting room are both very impressive. There are only six Hourglass brews on tap at the moment but they plan to have about 15 on tap in the very near future. I tried a glass of the Pumpkin Face and liked it enough to order a second glass. It was a solid pumpkin ale.
There are about 20 other craft brews on tap here and local food truck Wako Tacos will have a spot somewhere in or near the brewery. Hourglass is planning a Grand Opening some time in the very near future to celebrate their new and improved brewing and drinking facility. Stay tuned to Orlando Beer Guide for details! Florida Craft will be putting on its 2014 Holiday event, "A Florida Craft Christmas", at the Hourglass Brewery in Longwood on Tuesday December 9th from 7 to 10 pm. This special event will include six 1/2 pours of Hourglass brews, holiday small plate pairings by Luis Bistro, and some special giveaways. Tickets are $25 for Florida Craft members, $35 for non members, and can be purchased online at http://www.floridacraft.org/xmas2014. If you have questions about Florida Craft or the Florida Craft Card, you can contact Ashley Brewer at floridacraftorg@gmail.com. You can also follow Florida Craft on Twitter, @FloridaCraftOrg, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/floridacraftorg .
How about a FREE local beer festival? Tom and Dan from the popular local podcast A Mediocre Time With Tom and Dan are putting on the Bad at Business Beerfest on Saturday November 22 at Johnny's Fillin Station. How can it be free you ask? We spoke with Tom this week and he said that "The whole point when we started this was to show that you can put on a free beer fest for people.... We have a good size audience but small overhead so it allows us to do things a little different." The first 500 people will receive a Tom and Dan 4oz sampling mug and wristband FOR FREE. Event will be limited to 500 for the craft beer tasting. Those 500 people can sample beer from all the craft breweries involved in the event. Some of those breweries like Crooked Can Brewing and Mike Wallace's Ten10 aren't even open yet so its a great opportunity to try some new local beers! Here are some additional details on the tasting.....
* The Beerfest is from 2 to 4 pm on Saturday November 22 * Only the first 500 people in line will be able to get the sampling cups and wristbands to sample beer. * First 200 people in line will also receive a new Tom and Dan car magnet for FREE. * All craft draft beers at Johnny’s Beer Shack are $3. * NO DRINKING ND DRIVING! The festival has partnered with Lyft and if you use the promo code LYFTOFF1 – new users get a FREE ride up to $25! Orlando Beer Guide was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of Playalinda Brewing in Titusville this week. Former Cask and Larder Brewmaster Ron Raike has partnered with Brian and Donna Scott of Titusville to help create the small town's first brewery and tasting room. The brewery is in a historic downtown Titusville building that was once an old hardware store built in 1910. The shelving on the wall was part of that original hardware store and looks right at home behind the new bar. Locals from Florida's space coast know that Playalinda is a famous nude beach. But the owners were quick to point out that there are several "regular" beaches in Playlalinda with only the last one having a reputation for being clothing optional. Also, despite their new Bottomless Blonde logo that their brewery was not named after that "clothing optional" beach. It was nice to see 14 Playalinda beers on tap in the tasting room as there's nothing worse than checking out a new brewery when half of the taps are occupied by guests. Spearheading that diverse list of brews are Playalinda's two flagship beers which are the Bottomless Blonde and the Rocketman Red. Both are very refreshing, quaffable beers that could very easily be consumed in mass quantities while hanging out at the nearby beach. There were also two crushable session pale ales on the taplist that included an American Pale Mild. It's only 3.5 % ABV but tastes much bigger than it sounds and really hits you in the face with a well balanced dose of hops. Also, a Playalinda/ Cigar City collaboration beer dubbed Whirlpool that will be pouring at a few Central Florida beer bars in the very near future. This beer tastes like hop soda and was brewed at the Cigar City Brewery. There is a rumor that Raike was scolded by a CCB accountant for using more hops in this batch of beer than had ever been used to brew a single batch before at the world famous Tampa brewery! Each beer I sampled was really good so it was hard to pick a favorite. I must suggest the Honey Belgian though which is brewed with locally sourced Honey along with the "gourdy" Chuggin Pumpkin. Unlike most pumpkin ales, you can really taste the pumpkin in this beer which was made from over 75 pounds of roasted pie pumpkins!
You can also take some beer home with you here as Playalinda sells Crowlers to go for $9 a piece. It's recommended that you put them in a cooler with ice as it helps the beers to hold their carbonation better. The Crowlers are said to be "good" for three or four weeks if they are kept cold as long as you can hold off from drinking them that long! Playalinda Brewing is set to open its doors to the public for the first time on Friday November 14th. On December 6th, Rosen Plaza is hosting their WinterFest Beer Garden event whereby attendees can sample craft and seasonal beers and international cuisine. Guests will get to sample beers on tap (including seasonal brews from 10 vendors), sample beer in a complimentary commemorative Rosen WinterFest mug, delight in international food concessions, and much more! I got an email this week from a local 711 owner who was very excited to let us know about the selection of craft beers he has at his store. The store is located at 408 and Semoran and currently offers 30+ beers at reasonable prices. Six packs of Jai Alai currently go for $11.39 here. They also offer a "Beer of the Week" special that includes a $1 discount on a selected six pack.
I don't typically go to 711 for beer so I'm not sure how this compares to others. It's a solid selection though and probably worth checking out if you are in that area. I can't say that I've seen Cigar City at a 711 before. Florida Craft kicks off with its first event, at Redlight Redlight in Orlando, on October 15, 2014. Click here for event details. Join them for beer specials, food, an opportunity to learn more about Florida Craft from Executive Director, Ashley Brewer, and a Q&A with Redlight Red Light’s Brent Hernandez and Trevor Brewer of Brewer’s Law. Florida Craft is the non-profit organization bringing together the craft beverage community in our state, with its Florida Craft Card™. With 20 participating retailers throughout thestate, including 5 in Orlando and more expected soon, the Florida CraftCard™ is your ticket to discounts on craft beverages in your area. There are two ways you can get your Florida Craft Card™:
1. Click here to join Florida Craft and get your 12-month membership with card. For a limited time, the introductory membership fee is $20. Or, 2. Come to the October 15 event at Redlight Red Light and register for your card there. Interested retailers should contact Florida Craft at floridacraftorg@gmail.com. There is no charge to retailers for participating. If you have questions about Florida Craft or The Florida Craft Card™, contact Executive Director, Ashley Brewer, at floridacraftorg@gmail.com. You can also follow Florida Craft on Twitter, @FloridaCraftOrg, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/FloridaCraftOrg. “Ah, my Belovéd, fill the Cup that clears TODAY of past Regrets and future Fears: Tomorrow!—Why, Tomorrow I may be Myself with Yesterday’s Sev’n thousand Years.” -Omar Khayyám Approaching Redlight Redlight on Saturday to begin my shift for Zwanze Day, observing the line that had been stretching down the sidewalk since earlier that morning, my left eye began to twitch at the thought of serving all these people, keeping their glasses full, their faces smiling, assuaging their nearly unquenchable thirsts. Those who had been there the longest camped out in lawn chairs. Many toted coolers and cold cases. They had scoured their cellars for the bottle share, eager to show off the exotic and rare brews they had saved for this very occasion. Gathering courage at the knowledge that these people were depending on me for access to the even more exotic and rarer beers that would only be available at Redlight Redlight on this Zwanze Day in the year of our Lord 2014, I regained my composure, donned heroic game-face and bowed with chivalric pomp at my adoring fans like an athlete about to play the most important game of his career or a soldier heading into a battle from whence he may not return, for the salvation of these same citizens, their freedoms, the ways of life that they hold dear. I waited for my adoring fans to erupt in wild applause. Any moment now the were sure to shower me in roses, lift me into the air, so overwhelming was their love for me, their bartender on Zwanze Day. I looked up. I saw faces turned down at smart phones, central Florida’s large beer-geek community chuckling amongst each other, sweaty and shuffling uncomfortably in the ninety degree heat. They are certainly a dedicated lot, but who can blame them? Zwanze Day only comes but once a year, and Redlight Redlight is one of only twenty-three bars worldwide invited by Cantillon, the apex of the Belgian Lambic brewing tradition, invited to participate. If that wasn’t enough to get these geeks out in the middle of the muggy, Florida heat, Mandy and Brent had done an amazing job of putting together an absolutely unparalleled draft list of exciting and very hard to find beers from Florida and across the world. Celebrities included Cigar City White Oak Jai Alai; B Nektar Zombies Take Manhattan, a cherry cyser aged in rye whiskey barrels; Anchorage Galaxy White IPA; The Bruery Oude Tart; and Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, an imperial Oatmeal stout brewed with coffee beans passed through the digestive tract of civets, but there were many newcomers to compete with the classics such as Angry Chair’s 3 Little Birds Berliner Weisse; local beer guru Ron Raike’s Cherry Sour and Sour Grapes Saisons; and Redlight Redlight’s own Spanish Bombs, a saison brewed with Tempranillo grape must, and Singe Puant, a collaboration with Saint Somewhere. Brewed with the pungently confrontational durian fruit, Singe Puant literally means “stinky monkey” and has the distinction of being the most odoriferously unusual beer I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. If I failed to mention your favorite, forgive me. There wasn’t a mediocre beer to be found on the extensive draft list, and yet despite this impeccable line up, Cantillon’s entourage were the unquestioned stars of the evening. We had Iris; Mamouche, a lambic infused with elderflowers; the Classic Gueuze, a longtime personal favorite; and of course, that unicorn among ales, the ever elusive Zwanze beer itself, Cuvée de Florian, a dry-hopped lambic brewed with a generous dose of Belgium’s word-famous cherries, a beverage that once consumed shall never be seen again as Cantillon brews an entirely new beer for each annual celebration. Alas, were you not among the company at Redlight Redlight last Saturday or in one of twenty-three other bars across the globe blessed with a single keg of this ruby elixir, you shall never know the esoteric pleasures that had once sat within. That is to say, you snooze you lose, brothers and sisters, and I weep for your loss, though it were my gain. How is a bartender to prepare, both emotionally and physically, for such an endeavor as Zwanze Day? It wasn’t just the ever-building crowd outside the bar; a draft list brimming over with this many exotic brews was intimidating even to me, someone who has been working with craft beer for over seven years and drinking it much longer than that. As five o’clock, the moment the floodgates would open, quickly approached my co-workers and I ran through the drafts, sampling each one after the other. Not only was it educational, but it took the edge off of the anxiety and anticipation of the impending onslaught. I exhibited an uncharacteristic self-discipline by declining to sample the Cuvée de Florian until my shift was over. Anticipating the hysteria that would ensue were we to offer the Zwanze beer on a first come first served basis, Redlight Redlight wisely portioned it out and made it available only to those with pre-purchased tickets, tickets that had sold out several weeks ago. Nevertheless, they were kind enough to set aside a full serving of the beer so that each member of the staff was able to enjoy it, but even so, a slight mathematical miscalculation or unforeseen problems with the CO2 pressure could waste precious ounces. All the same, I saw my sample of the beer as a beacon guiding me to the end of the strenuous evening, a reward for enduring the mania, and so I decided to wait. They say time goes by fastest when one is having fun or under great stress. Bartending on Zwanze Day is a little bit of both. In any other situation people would form a line, but for some reason, while in bars the average drinker completely forgets about this most basic tenet of civilized society. In order to manage this kind of hectic atmosphere on a day like Zwanze Day, my bartending style takes on a fast-paced but meditative series of patterns, like The Bride running through a routine of kung fu exercises at the cruel tutelage of Pai Mei. Take an order, pour the drink, receive payment, repeat. When obstacles appear, I dodge, block, or kick them out of the way as necessary. The sink is full of dirty glasses. With dizzying speed, I have them washed, drying, and ready for use before my next customer can voice her order. We’ve run out of our signature Redlight Redlight tulip stemware. With preternatural instinct I reach for the next best glass and have it filled, perfect one inch head of lacy foam billowing from the top. What the hell is Rachel doing at the same tap handle I need to use this very moment?! I monitor my breathing, take a sip of water, and repeat in my mind the secret bartenders’ mantra I memorized when I answered the call. By the time Rachel is finished, I am refreshed in body, mind, and spirit and ready for more abuse. Watching the kegs of Iris and Mamouche blow barely an hour into the evening, I gave myself permission to indulge in a couple extra ounces of Classic Gueuze, knowing I would most likely not see it on draft for another year. Only moments later that keg followed its Cantillon cousins into beer heaven. In this way time flew by and stood still simultaneously. I’d look at the clock, shocked to realize that hours had passed without me noticing, while in other moments a measly ten minutes would press down on me with the weight of a Plutonian year. At some time after midnight the bar had thinned out enough to function at peak efficiency without my assistance. My watch ended, I threw my apron, towel, and bar key on the floor leaving them where they lay. I grabbed the nearest glass I could reach, felt my body rise from the surface of the earth, and floated in midair to the Zwanze tap. With a flourish and flick of the wrist I filled my vessel with the coveted nectar, which gushed forth as if from divine realms, blessed by Bacchus, and poured by nerieds. Putting my nose in the glass, I inhaled deeply, took in the aromas of fresh cherries and ancient earth, the Apollonian and Dionysian in perfect harmony, the competing but complimentary
scents of mountain air and pungent musty leather. The weight of it in my hand was imbued with a sparkling significance. It was the kind of drink over which even the nonreligious prayed before the imbibed. The mystics of old equated wine with transcendence because the poor fools had never heard of Cuvée de Florian, had gone up to their perspective gods before it had even been invented. I drank it up in one gulp, and now I can’t even remember what it tasted like. Orlando beverage attorney and fellow beer enthusiast Trevor Brewer is currently advising a number of aspiring Florida brewmasters on the mountain of legalities associated with fulfilling their dreams. He and his wife Ashley have also recently started a new organization called Florida Craft to support the exploding Florida Craft beverage scene. Here is their first official press release... Florida Craft wants to grow the craft beverage community by bringing together the producers and retailers of craft beverages in our state, and the consumers who support them. Join them for their first event, at Redlight Redlight in Orlando, on October 15, 2014. Click here for event details. Florida Craft also introduces The Florida Craft Card™, a retail benefits and discount card for the craft beverage community. Producers and retailers of Florida craft beverages and beverage-related products will offer discounts and special offers to card holders. There are two ways you can get your Florida Craft Card™: 1. Click here to join Florida Craft and get your 12-month membership with card. For a limited time, the introductory membership fee is $20. 2. Get two qualifying retailers to sign up with Florida Craft, to provide special offers to card holders, and your 12-month card is free. Interested retailers should contact Florida Craft at floridacraftorg@gmail.com. There is no charge to retailers for participating. Executive Director, Ashley Brewer, along with her husband, Trevor Brewer, launched Florida Craft to encourage Floridians to support their local beverage industry. Said Trevor, "Whether you like wine, beer, or distilled spirits, Florida businesses are producing it all over the state, and they deserve our support." Trevor is a beverage law attorney at BrewerLong. He is in regular contact with Florida beverage manufacturers through the firm's Brewers' Law initiative and web presence (brewerslaw.com). Joining Ashley and Trevor on the Board of Directors are Jeremy Bourst; Kayla Mitchell, Operations Manager at Orange Blossom Brewing Co.; Don Case, owner of AirMobile Advantage, LLC; Jeanette Dixon, Mills 50 Main Street District Secretary and Board Member; and Kara Solebello, Legal Services Manager at BrewerLong. "Our team combines knowledge and experience in the beverage industry and in building community," according to Ashley. "We are excited to celebrate the beverage arts in Florida." If you have questions about Florida Craft or The Florida Craft Card™, contact Executive Director, Ashley Brewer, at floridacraftorg@gmail.com. You can also follow Florida Craft on Twitter, @FloridaCraftOrg, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/FloridaCraftOrg. |
Archives
March 2019
Orlando Beer BlogOur goal is to provide you with the latest on where to enjoy craft beer in Orlando. Categories
All
|