Calusa Brewing

Brewery, Bar, Beer-to-go

5377 McIntosh Road
Sarasota, Florida, 34233
United States

(941) 882-8846 | map
calusabrewing.com
BEER STATS
Average:
4.17
Beers:
163
Ratings:
848
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.48
Reviews:
15
Ratings:
50
pDev:
7.59%
View: Beers | Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by tcbro023:
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Rated by tcbro023 from Wisconsin

4.53/5  rDev +1.1%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5

Mar 04, 2018
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.8 by BeerBeast from Florida

Aug 31, 2023
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Reviewed by clayrock81 from Florida

4/5  rDev -10.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4
Went on a Saturday afternoon and it was crowded but was able to relax outside on the big patio. Good beer selection with nice range of styles, good service, and looks like a good place to hang out with some TVs if you want to watch a game and a couple bar games like pool as well (or you can just sit outside and relax).
Mar 29, 2023
 
Rated: 4.93 by indysnow from Indiana

Jul 14, 2022
 
Rated: 4.45 by BeerMe8 from Florida

Jun 09, 2022
 
Rated: 4.03 by DrewT from Florida

Feb 14, 2021
 
Rated: 4.32 by Griphon from Florida

Jan 30, 2021
 
Rated: 4.45 by AElfwine_Nerevar from Connecticut

Jan 07, 2021
 
Rated: 4.63 by KensWorld from Florida

Aug 19, 2019
 
Rated: 4.36 by user785335 from Florida

Aug 07, 2019
 
Rated: 4.46 by winehead247 from Georgia

Jul 19, 2019
 
Rated: 4.29 by lemmy187 from Missouri

Jun 09, 2019
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Rated by mfreund7 from Massachusetts

4.83/5  rDev +7.8%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 5 | service: 4.75 | selection: 4.75
Best brewery in the Sarasota area. Great selection and creative mix. Can’t wait to go back.
Apr 12, 2019
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Reviewed by Billolick from New York

4.51/5  rDev +0.7%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4.5
Nice room, about mid sized, high ceiling, modern, clean lines, multiple high tables, comfortable and airy feel, all with the game playing on multiple screens , chill atmosphere here, add some outdoor space, food trucks, perhaps the best beers being made in Florida...this is a great place to check out, have a few quality juicy/cloudy IPAs and DIPA, orquality tart /sour/farmhouse brews...not far from the Sarasota airport....worthy of a short of longer ride.

Cans, growlers, bottles available to go when I visited.
Feb 20, 2019
 
Rated: 4.7 by jaketaz from Florida

Feb 12, 2019
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Reviewed by tvanvranken from Ohio

4.14/5  rDev -7.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4.25
Probably the best brewery in Sarasota with all the things I look for, great beer, nice staff, a pool table, and barrels. The bar is average with about 15 stools as well as several tables. They regularly have food trucks in the evenings. It is kind of hard to find the first time so use your NAV system.
Jan 16, 2019
 
Rated: 4.33 by scratch69 from Missouri

Jan 02, 2019
 
Rated: 4.52 by fortes from New York

Aug 29, 2018
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Reviewed by CrimeDog from New York

4.45/5  rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4 | selection: 4.75
Tried some citronious, focus , and dry hopped pilsner (not on BA yet, I believe) all wonderful beers.
They had lots of cans available as well as 32 and 64 oz growlers.
Even though I had an odd verbal exchange with the tap man as I was signing my bill, I would definitely go here again..
Also kid friendly and food trucks...
Aug 15, 2018
 
Rated: 4.29 by oldbassman from Florida

Aug 03, 2018
 
Rated: 4.11 by BrewsandBlues from Florida

Jul 14, 2018
 
Rated: 5 by trev311 from Florida

Jun 16, 2018
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Reviewed by jaialai-untilidie from Florida

4.86/5  rDev +8.5%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5
Amazing place! Quiet cozy location, food trucks are a norm. AMAZING beers, a nice and knowledgeable beer server, cant say enough about this place! A must see
May 25, 2018
 
Rated: 4.32 by Sacarlson1 from New Hampshire

Apr 27, 2018
Photo of metter98
Reviewed by metter98 from New York

4.1/5  rDev -8.5%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4
Vibe: I visited this place on an early Friday afternoon and the crowd was starting to pick up about 45 minutes after it opened. They have a very large, bright open space in the middle of the brewery that has skylights, a bar at one end, and lots of large rectangular tables that are good for groups. There were also picnic tables and umbrellas outside along with a food truck.

Quality: Beers were served at the proper temperature in a variety of different sized snifter glasses.

Service: There were two to three people working behind the bar so service was very prompt each time I needed to order.

Selection: The brewery had a dozen beers on-tap (including Citroniuos) as well as two bottles available for purchase to bring home: Foederhead and Ignorant Clod. Most came in a variety of sizes (e.g., 4 ounce, 8 ounce, 16 ounce) so you weren't stuck with drinking full glasses of everything if you didn't want to.
Apr 20, 2018
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Reviewed by joemcgrath27 from Canada (AB)

4.8/5  rDev +7.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5
This place is sweet, amazing selection, many of which appeared to be seasonals or limited releases, and some big boy bears including two barlewines and a wheat wine on tap while I was there. If i lived in the area I would be a regular.
Mar 02, 2018
Photo of PapaGoose03
Reviewed by PapaGoose03 from Michigan

4/5  rDev -10.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.75 | selection: 4.25
My wife and I stopped here while passing thru town to see what the hype for their beers was all about. The place is located along a light-industrial street and there is plenty of parking next to the building. We arrived on a weekday just as they were opening, so the place was not crowded. We chose seats at the bar. I typically don't like industrial tap rooms, but this one was nicely accented with the wooden bar and the table tops on barrels, plus stacks of barrels in a couple areas along the walls. A pool table added to the pub feel, and the brewing equipment was visible thru a window into the next bay of the building.

There were 15 beers on tap so we chose a sampler flight of 4 so that we could try as many as possible during our short visit. We had three IPAs and a strong dark Belgian ale. All were brewed very well to their respective styles, and the one that stood out most was the Rip Rye IPA. The Citronious Citra IPA and the Shadows strong dark Belgian were also notable.

There is no food served here, but a schedule of food trucks was posted for Tuesday thru Sunday with a different truck each day. Some beers are available in bottles/cans to go, and growlers are also offered on most beers. The beers at this brewery seemed to live up to their hype, and we would stop here if ever in the area again.
Feb 15, 2018
 
Rated: 4.53 by donporgy21 from New York

Jan 23, 2018
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Reviewed by coldriver from Texas

4.12/5  rDev -8%
vibe: 3.75 | quality: 4.25 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4
Visited on the afternoon of Saturday 12/16/2017. Nice comfortable tap room with friendly and attentive servers. Twelve taps, about half of which were hoppy while the other styles were pretty mixed. Everything I tried was good. Had TV's going with sports playing mindlessly...
Dec 28, 2017
 
Rated: 4.18 by KMcGrath from Massachusetts

Nov 25, 2017
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Rated by Sir_DrinksAtHome from Florida

5/5  rDev +11.6%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5
5/5 My favorite brewery!
Nov 21, 2017
Photo of skelegro
Reviewed by skelegro from Florida

3.48/5  rDev -22.3%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 4.25 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5
Calusa has a dozen taps of house-made beers. The selection tends to be heavy on IPAs, with typically around half the the available beers being some type of IPA. The quality tends to be good. There are no real gimmicky brews offered, which I appreciate. They don't subscribe to the common "let's just add fruit to it" mindset that is common among many brewers, where they turn one IPA into six different flavors by adding some sort of fruit for a different flavor.

The setup is similar to what you'll find at many breweries in the region. It's a warehouse divided into a tasting room and a brewing facility. Windows are provided to allow you to see into the brewing facility while drinking in tasting room. The tasting room is a single, open room with a bar on one side and windows looking into the brewing facility on the other. Seating is at tall tops and the bar. The tall tops with six to eight seats, meaning you're likely to be sharing your table with others most evenings and weekends. There is a pool table and several large TVs tuned to sports, which gives the place more of a sports bar feel than a brewery feel. Adding to that feel is the fact that it gets noisy once it starts to get crowded.

Service can be hit or miss. The attitude of the beertenders correlates with how busy they are. It's not uncommon to stand at the bar for a while while waiting for a beertender to acknowledge you on weekends. They are generally too busy to show any interest in discussing the beers.

The crowd seems to be more tilted towards tourists than it does beer drinkers. As the closest tasting room to Siesta Key, I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise. You will encounter a lot of children here and a lot of people who will frustrate the beertenders by asking what is similar to a their favorite AmBev beer. Unfortunately, the setup of the tasting rooms means that you're likely to have a bored kids sitting at your high top while you try to enjoy your beer.

Overall, it's probably a fine place to go if you're in town with family and want to get a drink with your kids in tow. I wouldn't recommend it for people who are "real" beer drinkers.
Jun 11, 2017
 
Rated: 4.25 by tazzman from Florida

Apr 20, 2017
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Rated by DAC17 from Connecticut

3.88/5  rDev -13.4%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.25 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4
Very simple, but good place. Mostly IPA's, a couple of darker beers. Crisp and clean taste.
Mar 29, 2017
 
Rated: 4.42 by colby600 from Connecticut

Mar 16, 2017
 
Rated: 4.48 by Dactrius from Netherlands Antilles

Mar 12, 2017
 
Rated: 4.6 by sd123 from Georgia

Feb 01, 2017
 
Rated: 5 by Elliepearson from Florida

Dec 31, 2016
 
Rated: 5 by JamesH from Florida

Oct 03, 2016
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Rated by TrickyV from Florida

4.73/5  rDev +5.6%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
Large open space decorated with reclaimed woods, multiple TV's, poo, table and other games.
Aug 31, 2016
Calusa Brewing in Sarasota, FL
Brewery rating: 4.17 out of 5 with 848 ratings