Hello from St. Pete Beach, Florida

Hi y’all, Mark and I had the chance to visit Green Bench Brewing in St. Petersburg, Florida yesterday.  They are a brand new production brewery.  They opened approximately 3 months ago and have a great brewery, tasting room and outdoor seating / yard area.  When we arrived at the brewery yesterday, they were sponsoring a yoga class.  There were about 100 people out in the yard getting their bodies in shape so they’d be nice and thirsty for a cold brew when they finished their workout.

Green Bench has 18,000 square feet.  Of that their brewery is located in about 4,500 square feet their tasting room is 1,500 square feet and the remainder is nicely organized outside space.  They are brewing on a 15 barrel JV Northwest brewing system.  They have several fermenters including an oak barrel fermenter called an oak foundres– that was a first for me; I’ve seen lots of oak barrels but this is actually an oak barrel fermenter.  Pretty cool.

Their tap room was really well designed and is an open and airy space.  They have a great bar for people who want to either grab their beer to go or get it to go in a cup to sit outside.

I had their Green Bench IPA which was a very hoppy and nice IPA.  While Mark and I were enjoying their tasting room, Khris, the brewer invited everyone in the tasting room for a tour.  Mark and I quickly joined the group of about 20 and were invited into the brewery side of the property.  Khris is really enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable.  He gave a detailed explanation of their name and the brewing process as a whole.  We were all offered a free beer so I chose the Saison de Blanc Vert which is a light farm ale.  It may be the best farm ale I’ve had to date.  It certainly was the freshest.  This is the first brewery I’ve toured where they’ve had the farm ale on tap.



Where can you buy some Green Bench brew?  Well for now, it’s only available in St. Petersburg and in Tampa.  I guess that means you’ll need to hit the beach and take a brewery tour while you are here.  In the past year, 5 or so breweries have opened in the area.  Most offer tours.  I’m hoping we make it to 3 Daughters, I hear that their tasting room is in the middle of the brewery.

Cheers for now y’all.  Enjoy the photos.

 

Karen