Jacksonville rec's?

Here are some local breweries you should check out.

Aardwolf Brewery
Engine 15 Brewing ( a lot of good guest taps too)
Intuition Ale Works
Green Room Brewing

 

There are still bottles of Imperial Simcoe (barrel aged ipa) from E15. Green Room may have a few bottles of oak aged Secret Spot still.

The breweries are kind of spread out. Downtown area has Intuition, Bold City, and Aardwolf. E15, Green Room, and Zeta are out at the beaches. @ryhouse Where is Veterans United?

 

JAX has a booming beer scene. We have 7 breweries now (not including the 3 brewpubs) and all of them have their own character. Personally I prefer Aardwolf and Intuition but Engine 15 has great beers and food and
Pinglehead had great pizza and beers so you can't go wrong at any one of them. Check out the newly minted "JAX Ale Trail" below, if you do all 7 you get a tshirt and a coozie. Pretty fun way to sample all the great beers and character of the city and meet a lot of fun craft beer enthusiasts on the way. Have fun.

My favorite JAX beers:
Intuition King St. Stout
Aardwolf Belgian Pale Ale
Pinglehead Imperial Red
Green Room Pablo Beach Pale Ale

http://www.visitjacksonville.com/jax-ale-trail/

 

Veterans United is off Southside back in an industrial park by I-95. They did a really nice job with the brewery and taproom definitely worth a visit.

 

You can also get to Veterans from Baymeadows road.

TMWSIY If you're going to be here on Feb 7 you should check out Intution Ale Works Underdark release

 

I could be wrong but only Bold city and Intuition have any canned beer you can take away atm. Both of which I seen for sale in the local Total wine and many grocery stores. ABC liquors etc. of course you can BUY or bring a 1 quart or 1 gallon growler to fill at all of them...if that is what you mean?

So then every thing else is subjective and depends on your taste buds. all the local brewers have good web sites now.

most tend to lean to the hoppy side IMHO. all of them are easy to visit to decide for yourself (providing you have transportation of course).

So without knowing you and your likes its impossible to recommend 1 over another.

there is a bus that bar hops, so you can drink and not drive. the beach is like 15-18 miles from riverside, but can take 30 minutes or so to get there, depends on traffic and route.

most of the young folks (under 35-45) like the riverside area. Its the area across from downtown and west of the st johns river.

food wise and all that you will have many choices.