After the debacle that was Saint Somewhere, and several sad looking selfies that came with our mistake, we pulled a u-turn and headed back south towards our next (hopefully open) stop.
de Bine Brewing Company (Palm Harbor, FL)
Founded in 2015, de Bine Brewing Company of Palm Harbor, Florida was our unexpected 400th brewery. This 9,000 sq foot facility boasts a great 2,500 sq feet tap room with live music, 14 taps and an N-64 to kick it old school. de Bine was one of our stretch goal breweries, as we didn’t receive any input from locals to make this a must hit stop.
We ordered a flight of four and went to do our work out back as the front room had a live band, and an even livelier crowd. So we went into the brew house and had the entire facility to ourselves to take happy selfies and wash away the pain from our last blunder. Our flight consisted of Wappy Sprayberry Reprise, Chocolate Milk Stout, DIPA for Days, and MarGOSErita.
Our least favorite of the flight was the Wappy Sprayberry Reprise. Which is a pretty looking beer to say the least. This classic American wheat beer was loaded blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. By loaded, we mean at least enough for the color and nose to sharply contract with a normal wheat beer. Our only complaint about this brew was that it needed more berry in the flavor; it just wasn’t strong enough.
The Chocolate Milk Stout with cacao nibs was your run of the mill milk stout. Nothing truly remarkable, and certainly came as advertised. Which is why it beat the Sprayberry on this list.
DIPA for Days and MarGOSErita were a tie for our number one pick. Obviously, my vote was in favor of the DIPA for days, which was a great 9% resin style IPA. That’s right, a DIPA that wasn’t a juice bomb; back to the woods for some pine in this glass. The MarGOSErita is exactly what it sounded like. A margarita trapped in a gose; making for a delicious, tart treat. The description said it was infused with orange zest, coriander and sea salt. Whatever the combination was, it worked super well.
de Bine Brewing was our surprise 400th brewery, and it did not disappoint. It’s a gorgeous facility, with live music, and good beer. We’re confident in recommending this place as a should stop 4.25 out of 5.
Stilt House Brewery (Palm Harbor, FL)
Just down the road from de Bine, 4.5 blocks to be exact, was another bonus stop on our trip back to St. Pete. Another unknown, and yet another great stop full of lively banter with a brewer, bartender and some locals who gave us two more stops to hit before we called it a night. But before we get to that, lets discuss the brews of Stilt House. The taps that night were stocked with 30, yeah, thirty of their own brews. This place parties hard. We picked four and let the bartender pour the last two.
Wizards Wheat: An interesting take on a wheat by adding some heat! There was a little pepper bite up front but not overpowering to the point that we really call it a pepper beer. It’s also classified as a wheat wine on Untappd, but I’m not entirely sure what that means.
Strawberry/Rhubarb: Crisp, clean and sweet as all hell was this berliner. Not my most favorite of the flight, but it hit all the right marks for Melissa.
Cranpus: Another wheat beer, this time cranberry infused. We had anticipated more cranberry, but this one kind of let us down in the fruit department; but beggars can’t be choosers.
The G-Spot: Well, I finally found it. The mystical G-spot. I just never realized it would taste like a gingerbread cookie. Winter ales range anywhere from 5% to 10% abv, and we always expect to see those higher abvs when we come across them. This one however was only at 5.6%, and had a mild body; maybe it’s just common for southern winter ales? The gingerbread really did shine through though.
Muscles from Brussels: A 10.4% Belgian Strong that was exceptionally thick, sweet and refreshing. There was nothing crazy unique about this, but if you enjoy Belgian Strong, you will enjoy some Muscle.
Year of the Jackass: Tied with Muscles (but scoring slightly higher in my book than Melissas) was an 8.9% IPA aged in Jack Daniels barrels. Looking at untappd, the scores are all over the place. Some people love it, others absolutely hate it. And while the true score is buried somewhere in the middle; the fact is that this beer was a bitter IPA (no juice bomb), with a great JD nose and barrel flavor.
With 30 house drafts on tap, you would have to try hard to not find something you like. I don’t think a beer snob would find anything too far out of the ordinary here; but this waterhole is certainly worth a stop if you’re passing through. Judging by their Untappd, they go through a lot of one offs, so if you stop in and find something crazy good, or just plain crazy, certainly send a crowler my way. Stilt House Brewery makes some good beer and stands at a sturdy 4 out of 5.
Oh, and if you’re dragging a non-beer person tell them that there is a tap system just for wine. Yes, kegs of wine are a thing and there were four wines available for your uncouth travel buddy.
Sometimes it’s about the Soda
I feel like Melissa and I have discussed this before. Probably multiple times starting long ago during our Finger Lakes trips, and certainly more recently but I can’t even remember at this point. So let’s make the case again.
There is always room for brewery made soda. Even if it takes up a tap line, even if it’s more expensive than a can of Barqs (or pick your brand) root beer, and even if it takes up a precious spot on your flight paddle; although you can usually get a full pint of soda for the same cost as a 5oz sample of beer. The point is, ending a beer flight on a sweet note of real soda is always a delicious end to a flight. I think most of us can agree on that.
This has come up again in our blog because the brewer at Stilt House was telling us about how the area has lots of good beer options, but not one locally brewed soda. Hes been polling customers for quite some time and according to his casual study; he sees a good market. He wasn’t going to limit the sales to just the taproom either, but he would like to also have some modest distribution efforts for the small batch soda crowd who enjoys real cane sugar cola, real birch beer and real cream soda. He just can’t get the owner on board. So if you stop by Stilt House, be sure to ask if their soda production ever kicked in.
