We had airline vouchers that we converted into free flights to Tampa. Daughter had a three day weekend, so we did the "48 hours in Tampa/St Petersburg" The water this time of year was awesome, the beer down there equally awesome. We went to:
1. Cigar City Brewpub (Tampa): Food was pretty good, not great. Fresh Jai Alai (oddly it's better in a can), and a couple of interesting stouts we paired with dessert.
2. 7venth Sun Brewing (Dunedin): Charming small tasting room with cool (bluegrass) music and an interesting variety of beers, all done well.
3. Rapp Brewing (Seminole): Damn, these guys do some interesting German beers. Their gose, lichtenheiner, and Berliner weisse were all spot on (all highly rated on BA). They also did a chocolate peanut butter stout (that received rave reviews) that tasted like it was out of the Southern Tier catalog. Also played an awesome mix of music...lots of GErman Oktoberfest music mixed with bluegrass, and "Freebird" played entirely on violin...loved it.
4. Peg's Cantina (Gulfport): Beer brewered by Cycle Brewing...excellent citra IPA and Berliner weisse, and the best food (tacos) we had the whole time.
5. Cigar City Tasting room (Tampa): less than 10 min drive from airport, perfect last stop before returning the rental car. These guys seem to do all styles very well! More variety than the brewpub. They also have a separate brewpub in the airport (they actually make the beer at the airport!), but we didn't go.
