There are lots of new places that are opening up in Orlando and the vicinity that are featuring extensive selections of craft beers. There are almost too many to keep up with! Its our goal to check out all the local craft beer spots and provide a guide to them. Its really hard work but someone's gotta do it!
We don't have any specific criteria here and our guide will be constantly changing. We visited one place with a great selection of craft beer that boasted $20 all you can drink selected craft beers on Friday afternoons. They were also proud to inform us that they play beer pong on some days. Personally, we don't think craft beer is meant to be "enjoyed" in a $20 all you can drink atmosphere that's accompanied by games of beer pong but who are we to judge? If thats your thing then knock yourself out! Just don't drive home at the end of the night.
We'd also love it if every place in town that served craft beer had a knowledgeable wait staff. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Some establishments go to great lengths to make sure their employees are well versed in what they are serving while others don't care as much. It has definitely improved though over the last couple of years here in Orlando.
You might also note that there are a very limited number of "chain" establishments in our guide. The amount of craft beer that is distributed in American currently makes up about 4% or less of the total beer market. The other 96% comes from the large "macrobreweries". Since its produced in such small quantities it only makes sense that craft beer typically isn't featured in chain restaurants. But there are a couple that we like here in Orlando that have a great selection of beer so we have included them in our guide.
You'll also note that we have an English/Irish pub section in our guide. There are a million visitors who visit Orlando from the UK each year and we thought they'd want to know where the good pubs are. Not all of our English/Irish pubs have a great selection of craft beer (though some do). They all have great atmospehere though and they are great places to enjoy a couple pints of Guiness.
Pretty much everywhere on our list is also family friendly. In Orlando, most places have to be or they wouldn't be open very long. But of course its never that great of an idea to take your kids out too late anyway so keep that in mind.
We hope that you find our information here useful and we'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email at orlandobeerguide@gmail.com if you have any questions or anything else you think we should add.
