Hey all, I will be visiting family/vacationing near St. Augustine Beach this summer, June 15-20. I will be staying in Crescent Beach to be exact. We are flying into Jacksonville and will obviously have a car. What I am looking for is local recommendations for bars, bottle shops, and restaurants where I will be staying to hit up. Also would like to get some ideas if we happen to get rained out on where we should travel to visit some breweries. Distance is much of an issue here. If its going to rain all day while we are there I have no issue in getting in the car and driving down to say JWB and spending the day there. I will let you all know that I am FL beer novice. My main experience is with CCB. I have also only had a few FB, Cycle, JWB and AC beers. Interested to see what you come up with, and by all means if there is a brewery that is local, that would be great to. If anyone knows of any events that may be happening while we will be here let me know about them as well. Also any good recommendations for cans to grab for the beach. Cheers, Sam
Southern Swells in Jacksonville beach, hit it up on your way down. Easily the best IPAs I have had in Florida, though to be fair I have not had the chance to try Civil Society yet, but have had many others. Not a whole lot for beer in St. Augustine (as of last fall), but still a really cool place to visit.
I second Southern Swells....place is killing it with their IPAs (their coffee porter Bold Brewed is also very good). You may luck out & be there within a couple days of one of their can releases. They usually don't sell out same day, but their better offerings are gone within a few. While in Jax I'd definitely hit Aardwolf too. You almost can't go wrong with any of their darker stuff and most of their sours. Their hoppy offerings are kinda so-so, but that's what you have SS for! Aardwolf does crowlers of just about everything they have on, and there's almost always something delicious available in bottles.
Bog and Old Coast in St. Augustine proper are well-above-average craft breweries and should be your top priorities based on where you're staying. The Blue Hen Café (breakfast and lunch spot; not at all beer-oriented) is my best restaurant recommendation for St. Augustine. Jacksonville has a great if small selection of craft breweries. Aardwolf to me is the best brewery in Florida by a mile and one of the best in the country. It's very strong across the board but especially in sour and wild ales. Southern Swells is solid and doing notable work in the NEIPA space (less cloying than most) -- and for some people these days that's all that matters, and it has a nice venue in a cool beach suburb. That said, I'd put the likes of Main & Six, Pinglehead, Green Room, and Intuition (as well as Bog and Old Coast) above it if your tastes run more broad. I'd also rank all of those breweries (including Southern Swells) above J. Wakefield, Funky Buddha, and Civil Society, which seem to get the lion's share of the hype in South Florida. The Tampa Bay area is notoriously packed with impressive breweries, but, in my opinion, the best of Jacksonville at minimum holds its own with the best of Tampa Bay.
Thanks for throwing in the restaurant recommendation. You made a pretty convincing argument that it's probably not worth it to drive any long distance if the opportunity presents itself. I threw those other breweries on there because a) I havent had the opportunity to sample many wares from the state of FL outside of CCB, and b) If there is going to be a wash out day I was looking to someway to pass the time. I may have to spend some more time in JAX than I originally planned, and/or use it for my rainy days.
We were just in St. Augustine this past March. Loved it. You can find very good beer there too. Bog Brewing was my favorite but Old Coast was very solid with more basic style offerings. I thought Dogwood was decent too. Only one I did not care for was Ancient City. Plenty of good draft options at various bars. Just walking around the downtown you'll stumble on many. Prohibition Kitchen had a nice tap list for sure. Good pizza place with a great happy hour on beers and pizza is Pizza Alley downtown....pretty sure that is the place....I was surprised prices were pretty fair all around the area. Not cheap but not jacked up touristy prices either..
Stick to cans and keep em covered. St Johns county police like to take consistent strolls down the beach and drinking isn’t allowed on the beach FYI.
Good suggestions here, I am in Jax and will second the recommendations for Aardwolf, Swells, I'd also add Green Room Brewing (Close to Swells), definitely agree about Main and Six, my favorite of the new breweries (They just won Gold at Best Florida Beer for the brown ale!). Bog and Old Coast are recommended in St. Augustine. Food / Beer in St. Augustine - Gas is not to be missed. nice Tap / Can / Bottle list and fantastic food! Not beer, but St. Augustine Distillery is there, cool tour and the Restaurant attached (The Ice Plant) is very good, and has good Craft Cocktails. For the sake of brevity, i won't talk about the other Jax Breweries, but i also enjoy Intuition, Engine 15 and Pinglehead a lot. PM me if you have any questions!
Definitely try Prohibition Kitchen for a meal as it is one of my favorite places. They do have a really nice tap list and bottle selections.
Spend a day in Jacksonville. Start at Engine 15 and pick up a jax ale trail passport and get it stamped. Southern Swells (Not part of the ale trail) is practically next door, and then Green Room is not too far from there. If you can get all the breweries in the passport to stamp you can send it in for a free tshirt and coozie and they also send the passport back to you. The 8 breweries in the passport are spread out and would be a feat to get in one day, but 3 are at the beach. Intuition downtown has a pretty good vibe, nice upper outdoor terrace area with bar.
I just looked at the menu and that will be my second night out when I am St. Augustine in a few weeks. Looks great.
I will second (or third) this restaurant, it's fantastic. Small place too, so get there early if you don't want to be on a wait. right down the street from Old Coast Ales.
Gonna wake up this thread - headed towards St. Augustine soon. Looking around on previous threads, I saw a recommendation for Broudy's Cobblestone for a bottle shop. I'm gonna be looking for some things to have on hand (or take home) that I can't get in Tampa. Is that my best bet? Any others to keep in mind? Thanks!
Couldn't care less about your question of recommendations. But can't help myself comment about Animals.
Yes, that is the best of Bottle shops around the St. Augustine area. If you make it up to Jax, Total Wine, Beer 30: San Marco, Alewife, and Really Good Beer Stop are your best bets.
