Southwest Florida's craft beer renaissance

The craft beer situation here in Sarasota County, circa the late 1990s, was rather bleak. Remember in "The Blues Brothers" when the band went to Bob's Country Bunker? The proprietor said they played both kinds of music: County and Western. The beer selection here used to be like that: Bud and Bud Light. Until the Big Change.

But before the Big Change there were oases in the wasteland.

The first one I found was the Cock & Bull Pub on Main Street in Sarasota. I learned of it through co-workers. We went there after the shift one night, and I was hooked. I'll write about the Cock & Bull in another post, probably in the same one where I write about how I got into craft beer.

Seeking a bottle of Corsendonk ale I had on draft at the C&B led me to Blackburn Point Liquors on U.S. 41 in Osprey. I found it by calling all the liquor stores in the yellow pages. That was a great beer store, and the only store in the region that had a good selection of craft beer.

So what was the Big Change?

It was the repeal of Florida's old beer bottle size law. This law, which dated back decades, declared that beer sold in Florida had to be in 8, 12, 16 or 32-ounce containers. That kept out many American craft breweries, who bottled in 22-ounce "bombers," and many international breweries, who bottled in metric sizes like 500 mL and 750 mL. This law was supported by the big breweries like Anheuser-Busch and Miller, who didn't want the competition. I remember them arguing that there were already something like 700 beers available in the state. Wasn't that enough?

I can't remember which legislator wrote a bill to repeal this law. But the first year he introduced it the big breweries fought the bill and it didn't pass. The next year, the breweries didn't fight and bill went through and Gov. Lawton Chiles signed it. Under the new law all bottles were legal as long as they were 32 ounces or less.

I remember asking Neil, the owner of Blackburn Point Liquors, when the new bottles would come in. What a great day that was! I bought a bottle of Abbaye Des Rocs Grande Cru and loved it. Soon were were getting bombers from Rogue Ales in Oregon, one of my favorite breweries.

The repeal was the watershed moment for craft beer in Florida. It opened up our market to so much great beer.