Surveying The Tampa Brewing Scene

By Lana Bray


There is clear evidence that brewing of ale dates back 7,000 years in ancient Egypt, China, Mesopotamia and Sumeria. In Neolithic Europe, most of the beer production was done in the home. By 700 AD, European monks got a piece of the action. Today, beer is produced on an industrial scale, with more than 130 billion liters being sold to contribute approximately 300 billion to the global economy. The Tampa brewing industry has joined the beer fraternity, making its own contribution to the local economy. The St Petersburg/Tampa area has a lively trade in brewpubs, breweries, shops, festivals and other special events.

For a long time, beers brewed in North America were so boring and homogeneous that the only way the drinker could tell one brand from another was by their different advertising campaigns. In the past two decades, however, the brewing industry has undergone a major face lift with the introduction of artisanal craft beers. This trend, visible in Tampa brewing, has been somewhat inspired by what has been taking place in the United Kingdom, where traditional cask ale is the national beverage.

Cask-conditioned ale differs from its mass-produced keg counterpart because it is a living, working product. The yeast continues to ferment the beer in the container from which it is directly served. In the UK, this is either a nine-gallon firkin or an 18-gallon cask called a kildekin.

Keg beer, on the other hand, is pasteurized. This kills the yeast, so the effervescence the drinker craves has to be artificially induced by the introduction of carbon dioxide under pressure. But, the lack of pasteurization makes the product somewhat vulnerable to bacterial or fungal contamination. It also loses its conditioning at temperatures above 54 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that in order to be financially viable, turnover needs to be high enough to empty a cask within a few days.

In the 1960s, trouble began brewing for the British beer drinker. Having cottoned on to the fact that by killing the yeast (pasteurization) and stuffing the beer artificially with carbon dioxide, they could produce something that at least looked like beer. It was cheap and easy to produce and required a lot less commitment and attention from the cellar staff of a pub. Keg beer was fast phasing cask ale, the British national drink, out of the pub.

This enraged Britain's beer drinkers because it was dumbing down the British national drink. By the 1970s, drinkers were so disgusted with what was on offer, four particularly angry young men met in a pub in Ireland formed what was to become the Campaign for Real Ale, CAMRA for short. From four original beer activists, the campaign has grown to a membership of nearly 150,000 and is recognized as the biggest, most successful consumer organization in Europe.

By the beginning of the 21st Century, the numbers of brewers and types of different ale recipes was growing and growing. The number of breweries in London alone has been growing at an exponential rate. Like so many great British imports, Americans have taken craft brewing to heart and now practically every state in the union has its own brew pubs and breweries churning out an increasing array of unique tastes.

Tampa brewing has a lot to offer in terms of craft beer. In fact, one of the country's oldest brewing companies has maintained a presence here for more than twenty years. Any day of the week, the avid Tampa beer drinker can find a brewery tour, tasting room or other beery event to keep them entertained.




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