Roadtrip to Pensacola
The Pensacola Brewery Scene is a Great Reason to Visit This Historic Gulf Coast City
Are you planning a visit to Pensacola, Florida? What comes to mind? Gulf views and white sand at Pensacola Beach? The old downtown area with art galleries, parks, and history? Maybe you think of Naval Aviation – the U.S. Navy Blue Angels may come to mind. We love all those things, too. Visiting breweries is the perfect reason.
Click Tallahassee to Tampa: 20+ Craft Breweries in Four Days, for additional information.
Big Top Brewing
The entrance to Big Top Brewing Company in Pensacola, Fla. / BrewsTravelingWomen.com
We started at Big Top Brewing Company. The taproom was full of revelers for the annual McGuire’s St. Patrick’s Day Run.
Big Top Brewing started in Sarasota, Fla., and pays tribute to Sarasota’s associations with The Ringling Circus and performing arts. They’re known for creating unique flavors with a nod to circus theme names, artwork, and Florida.
Scan the QR at the table and wait for the staff to come to you.
Try the Hazy Sky Wire NEIPA (7.5%) with grapefruit, pine, and tropical fruit notes. Or the Circus City IPA (6.8%), an English-style India pale ale. The Intercoastal Amber Ale (5.2%) is easy drinking too.
Our flight included: Don’t Stop Beer Leaving, a Magnum’s Cider, an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie brown sour, and a honey/caramel stout.
And Decklin’s Indulgence (6%) and PB&J Pale Ale (5.3%) were satisfying.
Trecouche, a Florida Belgian Abbey Ale brewed under their Naughty Monk Ale Works label, was delicious. Naughty Monk Ale is based at the Lakewood Ranch facility in Bradenton, Fla.
The Pensacola brewery offers a full menu, including Sunday brunch and lunch. And appetizers, cocktails, and a $10 lunch in 10 minutes are available.
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McGuire’s Irish Pub & Brewery
From Big Top, we headed to McGuire’s Irish Pub for an early dinner. McGuire’s oak and copper kettles have been working to create ales, porters, and stouts for years. The restaurant employs a master brewer to keep the beer flowing.
A visit to Pensacola, Florida, breweries isn’t complete without stopping at McGuire’s for a great meal and small-batch craft beers.
The Irish Red Ale is a perfect pairing with McGuire’s menu. The Stout with a steak or burger always satisfies.
McGuire’s Craft Brewery claims to be the oldest in Florida. It opened in 1988 and now has five regular and a rotating schedule of seasonal beers.
Beers on tap include an IPA, the Irish Red Ale, and a stout. Raspberry wheat, Belgian ale, and India Pale Ale are available. Oktoberfest, Millennium, Christmas Ale, and seasonal lagers are available.
And they’ll happily provide a tour of the small on-site brewery if you’re interested. Bonus: Try a root beer made with natural sassafras root.
We ended the day watching the Pensacola Ice Flyers vs. The Roanoke Railyard Dawgs at the nearby Pensacola Bay Center.
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Pensacola Bay Brewery
On our summer trip to Pensacola, we visited Pensacola Bay Brewery.
The brewery has a small taproom with a covered patio overlooking the historic Old Christ Church. The oak-covered Seville Square Park is across the street.
A visit to this Northwest Florida brewery puts you in the heart of downtown near the waterfront and fun attractions.
The brewing process is visible through sliding glass doors. Locals might move out of your way if you ask politely. They happily did for us. We snapped a couple of pictures. And we enjoyed looking at the stamps, stickers, and notes on the glass doors.
With 20 beers on tap, we relied on the bartender to make suggestions. And they have wine and cider for non-beer lovers. We chose a Riptide Amber (5.4% ABV) and a Desoto Raspberry Berliner Weisse (3.5% ABV).
We’d heard that a female brewer was running the beer process.
Historic Places Near the Brewery
We took our beer outside to enjoy the patio and scenery.
Downtown Pensacola always has plenty of events, parades, restaurants, and bars, and attractions for people of all ages.
Pensacola Bay Brewery is close enough to Seville Quarter’s Entertainment District that we could have walked. We drove.
Seville Quarter is bumping at night. Rosie O’Grady’s, the billiard room, the English pub, and the hidden garden were all quiet, with room to explore.
And, as far as we know, Seville Quarter doesn’t brew beer. End O’ the Alley and Fast Eddy’s have a good selection of beers.
This location is a must-stop as a downtown landmark. It has great entertainment space. Rosie O’Grady’s for Dueling Pianos. The sports bar with pool tables. And the courtyard and fountain offer a relaxing place to enjoy a drink.
Seville has a little something for everyone.
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Perfect Plain Brewing Company
Perfect Plain Brewing Company was our next stop.
Poor timing on our part. They were closed. So we slipped inside and took a few pics. It’s a beautiful space, and we’re excited about returning.
After our visit we learned that Perfect Plain sold the brewery as the owner, D.C. Reeves, was elected mayor. Perfect Plain was sold to New Orleans-based Urban South Brewery.
And Perfect Plain’s location includes the brewery and taproom. They have a cozy patio, a cocktail garden, and The Well, a Florida-inspired bar with spirits and funky beers.
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Emerald Republic Brewing Company
And our final stop on this short road trip was Emerald Republic Brewing Company. We spent some time sampling beers and watching as the crew set up for a gaming event.
We spent more time in the expansive garden. The beer garden had plenty of picnic tables and seating. And dogs could get water under the watchful eye of John Wick and baby Yoda artwork. The murals caught our eye.
The bartender was friendly and offered suggestions on which beers to try. We settled on a For One Perfect Moment (5% ABV) sour and a Halcyon (5.5 % ABV) pale ale.
The brewery has a lot of hidden surprises in its nooks and crannies. Explore the taproom and look at unexpected places. Notice the unique tap handles, each painted by staff members. No two taps are alike.
Blue Wahoos Baseball
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos, the Double-A affiliate baseball team of the Miami Marlins, was in town. The game was sold out on this night. We’ll catch a game next time.
The stadium was built on Pensacola Bay at Community Maritime Park and offers gorgeous sunsets over the bay. The stadium was recently named the “Best View” in Double-A baseball.
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Alga Beer Company
On our most recent visit, we started the day at ALGA Beer Company in the East Hill neighborhood of Pensacola. ALGA was created by two homebrewers from their respective kitchens in Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta.
ALGA has a large taproom with an outdoor patio with Brown Bagger food truck. The bartender said plans are underway to open an upscale cocktail bar in the brewery’s unused space.
On this visit, we had an East Hillsner (5.4% ABV), a light and crisp Pilsner, a Neighbor Hood Beer, a (5.9%) honey Saison brewed with orange blossom honey, a Player Haters Ball (6.9%) peach sour, and Tellier (5%) Rhineland-style German ale. A burger and fries from Brown Bagger were the perfect way to start the day.
And locals recommended the ’84 Sheepdog (5.4%) smoked porter, Solitude (5.4%) black lager, and Lo-Fi (6.2%) hazy IPA.
A Little Madness Brewing Company
From ALGA, we headed north to A Little Madness Brewing Company. We had the MaD Saison (6.7%) farmhouse ale Saison and the Precedential Porter (6.3%).
Little Madness has a good size taproom with fermenters in view, and pizza and appetizers are on the menu. Everyone here was ordering a pizza with their beers. Open garage-style doors lead to a patio beside the building, and there is plenty of parking.
Odd Colony Brewing Company
From A Little Madness, we headed back downtown to Odd Colony Brewing Company, a farmhouse-inspired brewery that focuses on seasonal craft beers.
In keeping with Odd Colony’s vibe and the bone taps, we ordered Bone Harvest (4.8%) American lager and Tidal Guide (4.8%) oyster pilsner, a collaboration with Grayson Bay Oyster Company.
Other beers on tap include Moth Bore (6.3%), a wild ale with Chilton County peaches, Barren Lands (6.8%) IPA with citra, mosaic & chinook, and Yule Tide Doubt (10.8%) bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout with cacao nibs, peanuts, and lactose.
Around Town and Back Again
A Lunar New Year Celebration was taking place downtown on this visit.
With crowds building in the streets and businesses, we quickly returned to Big Top Brewing for a final beer flight.
The brewery and taproom were packed with an after-work crowd and party revelers. We squeezed up to the bar and ordered a blackberry Bam-Ba-Lam (3.8%) blackberry sour, Tropical Albus (6.2%) IPA white wheat, Decklin’s Indulgence Peanut Butter (6%) American brown ale, and a Hawaiian Lion (7.5%) coffee, coconut Porter. It was a nice flight. The band was setting up. And it was time to head home.
There are still a few breweries to visit, so we’ll get to those next time.
If you’re looking for a fun destination for your next trip, you will find plenty to do if you visit Florida Breweries in Pensacola.
For information about more Breweries in Florida, click here. Or, to learn about our hometown on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, you can click here.