St. Pete/Clearwater currently has 27 craft breweries ranging from Florida’s oldest—Dunedin Brewery—to one of Floriday’s fastest growing—3 Daughters—to one of Florida’s most respected among beer heads—Rapp Brewing. In just 8 hours, we hope to give you a great taste of the St. Pete/Clearwater Craft Beer Trail.
Itinerary
2016 Post-Conference Excursion with Visit Saint Pete | Clearwater
Sunday, July 10
12:45 p.m. Depart Tampa Marriot Waterside
1:45 p.m. Arrive at 3 Daughters Brewing in St. Pete for tour with Mike (owner) and tasting
One of Florida’s fastest growing breweries, 3 Daughters just opened a second facility on the same property as the original brewery. The new 10,000-square-foot space quintuples 3 Daughters current production capacity. Currently, 3 Daughters offers four styles available in cans in Florida, Georgia and the Bahamas. They are the Beach Blonde Ale, Bimini Twist IPA, Stern Line Stout and Rod Bender Red Ale.
3:15 p.m. Green Bench Brewing in St. Pete for tour with Kris (head brewer) and tasting
St. Pete’s first craft brewery, Green Bench is a 15 barrel brewhouse located St. Pete’s trendy Edge District and one of the few breweries with a grassy outdoor beer garden. Green Bench’s headbrewer is Khris Johnson, who was the mastermind behind the ever elusive Manaphin Stout, an 11% bourbon barrel aged imperial oatmeal stout, that was inspired by VSPC’s Manaphin April Fool’s prank.
4 p.m. Sampling of other local breweries at Green Bench
5 p.m. Group 1 to Red Mesa Mercado
An urbran drive-by style dining similar to what you find on the streets of Mexico, Red Mesa Mercado leans on Red Mesa’s local secret recipes to deliver a great meal quickly, including made in house fresh tortillas, sauces, salsas and moles. Check out the menu.
Group 2 to Hawkers
The Edge District’s newest restaurant hit is bringing out the best in Asian street food—hence its namesake. Since opening a couple months ago, there’s been a line waiting to snag a table and try a mixture of the Asian dishes, including roti canai, stir fry udon and standard dishes, like pad Thai and South Asian curry. Check out the menu.
6:30 p.m. Bus picks up Group 1 at Red Mesa Mercado
6:40 p.m. Bus picks up Group 2 at Hawkers
7 p.m. Tour and tasting at Rapp Brewing in Seminole
One of the most respected breweries by craft beer experts, Rapp Brewing has stayed true to its small batch brewing and homebrew style that gave Greg Rapp his start. The most well known beer is the Gose—a tangy sour, slightly salty wheat beer—which is extremely refreshing on a hot Florida summer day.
8 p.m. Bus departs Rapp Brewing
9 p.m. Arrive Tampa Marriott Waterside
For those who may want to chill out post-conference on the beach, our hosts have arranged optional lodging for those wanting to extend their Florida stay in St Pete. The St. Pete beach is rated the 2nd best beach in America by TripAdvisor readers and the Clearwater beach is rated 8th.
Discounted rate of $189 at TradeWinds Island Grand on St. Pete Beach
Cost $25 for citizen bloggers and $50 for industry bloggers and non-bloggers. Those already registered for the conference can sign up using the excursion registration form. Others can register for the excursions while registering for the conference.
If you’ve already registered for the conference, but would like to add an excursion (you should also check out our Pre-Conference Excursion), you can do that here. To register for the full conference (with the option of adding excursions), you can do that here.