I have a friend in Tampa who is making a beer run for me before she drives up to Illinois. She is just going to one store, the ABC store on Mabry, and I don't want to inconvenience her by asking her to go anywhere else, so I'm really just looking for advice as to what I should expect to be on the shelves there. For instance I know she can get jai alai, but I'm not sure if cigar city has anything else current that I'll be interested in. I like IPAs, stouts, and porters, but I don't know if any of their stouts are in season right now. I also don't really know any of their IPAs other than highlight, invasion, and hopped on the high seas. I'm also interested in Terrapin, but I don't know what's in season for them right now. I would love to get my hands on some cinnamon roll but I assume that that is a limited availability beer and not likely to be on the shelf. (Is Hopzilla in season right now?) I looked on seekabrew.com for some other suggestions, but I wasn't really familiar with most of the other breweries that I saw there. Due South sounds interesting, but again I don't know what's in season and what's actually hard to find. Does funky Buddha actually distribute outside of their brewpub? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
If possible Id recommend the TotalWine on Mabry instead. That TotalWine is right by CCB as well. CCB has those crowlers now that are pretty convenient fills. FB does not distribute in Tampa and is just now adding Orlando distrib. I've never seen Due South distrib in Tampa besides the occasional growler fill at ABC. I'd check out the TotalWine site (select the appropriate store) or CCB bottles to go to get an idea of whats in distrib in the area right now. Unfortunately ABCs site does not show inventory, but they do have some very active employees on Twitter that often post new releases.
I noticed that Cubano Espresso Brown is in the CCB cooler. It's close to being in distro, but hasn't been spotted in my bottle shops. I would suggest finding a way to score that one. Also, CCB has Wandering Pelican, the black ale co-op with Great Lakes. The Lakeland ABC had that one. I haven't tried it, but will before it goes (wanders) away.
Thanks for the guidance, guys. My friend actually went about 20 minutes after I had made that post, so I didn't even get the chance to use your information, but I am excited about what she's bringing back: jai alai, maduro, hopzilla, and "something special" that the salesperson recommended from cigar city. Normally, I would have her reciprocate by bringing back some pipeworks or spiteful stuff to distribute in Tampa, but she's actually moving to Chicago and won't be back!
