Florida beer shopping list ideas?

I was impressed by their Florida Cracker wit. It's basically a wit-farmhouse hybrid (technically a wit brewed with farmhouse yeasts). Super tasty and very drinkable. Also their Invasion Pale Ale is solid and one should also try it. And like you said, Jai Alai is a must.

 

Cubano Style Expresso Ale if they can find it. Maduro (brown ale), Florida Cracker (witbier), and Invasion (pale ale) are also good.

 

As others stated Invasion Pale Ale and Florida Cracker are both solid. Some of my other Florida favorites are:

Tampa Bay Brewing Reef Donkey
St. Pete Orange Wheat

Anything from Funky Buddha is also a good choice. Tend to pick up any of those when I visit family in Bradenton.

 

If you haven't beer here (http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/south-atlantic.17/) yet, you can take a look at some of the threads that are asking the same question. However, stuff from Cigar City and Funky Buddha probably are the complete answer.

 

Honestly, I don't want to disrespect any of the earlier posters but living here in Florida kind of gives me an advantage.

First off, in my opinion you're wasting your time with CCB invasion pale ale, Maduro and Florida Cracker. Invasion is good but there are so many better pale ales in the Chicago area (Zombie Dust, Daisy Cutter, etc.) that it's not worth bringing home. Maduro is also good, but again not great except for Vanilla Maduro on nitro which is fantastic, but as far as I know it's not bottled or canned. Florida Cracker (in my opinion) is a complete waste of time being a very average wit when you can buy (I believe) Allagash White at Binnys in Chicago. Espresso Cubano is definitely worth bringing back to Chicago but it comes out quarterly and you have to be lucky and quick to pick some up. I did see bombers of Big Sound at Total Wine this week so there still might be some floating around. Also, you might get lucky and get some Jai Alai on white oak which also comes out quarterly. If your parents can make it to the brewery they have crowlers and usually some special bottles you can pick up.

Funky Buddha has Nib Smuggler out right now in the bottle. I haven't tried it in the bottle (good on tap) but I'm hearing from store employees it's average. A better bet is to grab the Nikolai Vourlauf Stout, Sweet Potato Casserole or even Blueberry Cobbler if you still can find it. Not great but worth bringing home. FBs Hop Gun and Floridian Hefe which are always available are both a pass in my opinion.

You might also want to check out Cycle Brewery since your parents are in the area which has some excellent beer offerings.

 

Your folks may be able to pick up a six of Swamp Head's " Stumpknocker" at the grocery store, a solid IPA, usually in the cooler at Publix next to the Jai Alai. Cheers!

 

Have them look for green bench ipas. One is green can - regular ipa. The other is sunshine city which is a even better ipa from them . Also happy hermit is a great pale ale by them . Abc and no3 in cape coral have it .

 

Not sure if you can get Fat Heads back in Chicago but they distribute to FL and looks like the Total Wine in Ft Myers has some of their stuff in stock. A little pricey but, imo, Head Hunter is far better than Jai Alai.

 

Jai Alai and Maduro are good. Explain to them date codes on beer.

 

Every publix around has jai alai less than 3 weeks old . It's just under the can . No codes.

 

What @detroitfloridian just said above. CCB's cans just have the date on the bottom. I'm guessing you're looking for different stuff to try vs. "better than what you get in Chicago." So, most of the non-Floridians' recommendations here are, in fact, really good. And the Californian, @TriggerFingers, is right that Maduro is a solid brown and is further correct that it is, in fact, available in cans.

@Yourahoser is the resident Fort Myers expert. There's a bunch of good stuff from around Florida but what's relevant is what's readily available to your folks down in Fort Myers ... unless they're interested in a Beer Adventure (and I presume they're not because you likely would have said if they were!). Most of the local independent bottle shops have Florida-brewery sections or employees who can point your folks to the locally made stuff.

 

Codes/Dates/Date Codes....I meant explain "freshness" to them.

 

I don't think anyone was jumping on you, brother! The good news for Jai Alai in particular is that it generally sells so quickly in places like Publix (which doesn't stock a shit-ton at a time) that what's on the shelf is usually WELL within its freshness sweet spot. But it can't hurt to have 'em look ...

 

Yeah, I've had my parents bring me back Jai Alai many times and I've never had them check the canning date, never been older than a 2-3 weeks.