>For brewery owners, the road leading up to opening day is a long and winding one. Following Cycle Brewing and Green Bench Brewing Company, St. Petersburg is getting two more breweries by 2014.
Mike and Leigh Harting, owners of 3 Daughters Brewing, celebrate the opening of their Warehouse Arts District brewery on Sat., Dec. 14 (20, 3-9 p.m., 222 22nd St. S., St. Petersburg, 727-495-6002, 3dbrewing.com). The Hartings expanded into beer about 18 months ago, starting with small batches at their restaurant, Bella Brava, in St. Petersburg under Bella Brava chef and head brewer Ty Weaver.
“It started with Ty’s beer-battered fish,” Leigh Harting said. “Mike asked if it would be better with home-brewed beer. Since Ty is a savant where food and drinks are concerned, he started brewing.”
They couldn’t keep the beer in stock, and with the growing craft beer market, the Hartings decided to open a brewery.
The brewery is housed in an 18,000-square-foot warehouse that will open with seven handcrafted brews.
“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, we’re on the eve of starting something great.”
The 30-barrel brew house has four fermenters, with two more coming soon.
“We also have a one-barrel system that Ty gets to play with,” she says. “It’s all about expanding the beer portfolio. We’re having a great time.”
Eventually, they hope to put in a canning line.
“We have some kegs for retailers,” Harting says. “But getting our beer out into the community in cans is the promised land.”
She says the local craft beer community provided a lot of support to help get 3 Daughters going.
“There’s a huge, exciting wave of breweries opening. Cigar City couldn’t have been greater or more helpful,” Harting said. “There’s this great community of people all moving craft beer forward.”
St. Pete Brewing Company hopes to open in the next few weeks as well.
“Our brew house arrived last week,” says St. Pete Brewing Company’s head brewer and co-founder Jon McCracken. “It’s a 10-barrel brew house,” McCracken said, adding they they are still assembling it.
An opening date hasn’t been set, pending the arrival of a federal license (ah, bureaucracy). The brewery will be located at 544 First Ave. N. in St. Petersburg.
In other local brew news: Clearwater’s Pair O’ Dice Brewing celebrated its opening at the end of October, with the brewery and tasting room now officially pouring pints at 4400 118th Ave. N. Ste. 208, Clearwater. (More info at pairodicebrewing.com.)
Ybor City’s Coppertail Brewing this week began construction on its brewery, to be located at 2601 E. Second Ave., Tampa. Creative Loafing’s Tom Scherberger sampled their “solid, citrusy 5.5 percent IPA made on the pilot brewing system in Ybor that had the hoppiness of West Coast IPAs with an East Coast maltiness.” The brewery is slated to open in March 2014.
