I am going to be on a family vacation in Florida and was looking for some suggestions on local beers to try. I am already a big fan of Cigar City so anything else would be great. I am looking for IPA's and hoppy APA's, preferably in cans for the beach or pool. Willing to sacrifice a little bit on the quality end for ease of finding in the local Publix. We will be in Palm Beach Garden area and North Captiva Island.
Jai Alai and Invasion pale ale from CCB can be found at Publix most of the time. Don't see much else for local in my local Publix.
Do a quick search for Captiva here in this forum. It's not been in the last couple of months but I know there have been threads on some relatively easy places to grab a selection of Florida beers before you head off the mainland.
Publix just redid their sets for 2017 last month and cut out A LOT of local beer. Even CCB & Buddha have lost placements. Rumor is that these are mandated beer for every store now. Managers used to be able to order in different stuff based off of demand in their store but that's apparently gone away too.
As for the OP, when you are in Gardens go by Total Wine and/or Whole Foods. Those will be the best selections of local stuff. If you travel a tad bit north there is Beer City in Jupiter as well with a great selection.
@mirish72 If you are in Palm Beach Gardens Twisted Trunk in Palm Beach Gardens (US1 and PGA Blvd.) and certainly Civil Society in Jupiter are pretty short drives and have really tasty IPAs and APA's. Civil Society is making arguably the best hoppy beers anywhere in the state. Both breweries have cans to go that would be perfect for the beach. Unfortunately you won't find their stuff at Publix though.
Most of them don't know anything about craft beer though. So a lot of stores will just go with the set
J Wakefield is a must, but also Civil Society and a newcomer would be Tank in Miami. Bugnutty in Merrit Island, Greenbench makes a great easy drinking IPA. Oh! M.I.A. has some seriously good liquid as well. There is also Engine 15 in Jacksonville ( I recommend the Nutsack brown ale.) And, one of my local favorites here in the Florida Keys is Florida Keys Brewing's Iguana Bait. It's a honey hibiscus kolch. There are plenty more to choose from as well, but that should get you started!
Out of curiosity, what's in the set? My Publix has the entire slate of year-rounds for CCB, Bold City, and 3 Daughters, but no Funky at all. Meanwhile, my old Publix before I moved (Windermere to Clermont) had a wider selection of craft, but the only local beers were Floridian and Hop Gun. Amusingly, the Publix here has a solid enough local craft selection in store, while in the Liquors, the most exotic thing available is Fat Tire.
The set is based off corporate. But say I work in Lakeland. I order in the beers I drink and keep them on the shelf cold. Most stores just go with the normals. Jai Alia lager and maduro funky Buddha the brew hub hootie and the blowfish beer and some other crap from Florida brewing are the normal "set" for my location though.
