TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Brewing Co. (TBBC), the 24 year-old independent known for their hop-forward IPAs, Pale Ales, expressive sours and fresh fruited Floridaweisse, announced their first foray into distribution outside of their home state of Florida via a limited program with Boston-based Night Shift Distributing.
The initial program initially puts three TBBC brands into the hands of select Boston retailers including their flagship “Reef Donkey”, a GABF bronze medal winning pale ale, “Hop Silo 7”, a juicy, hazy New England Style pale ale brewed in collaboration with Invasive Species, and “Gourds Gone Wild”, their sought-after pumpkin spice ale.
“We’ve long witnessed the connection between Boston and Florida,” remarked David Doble, owner and managing partner of TBBC, “each year we meet people at our taprooms that vacation or spend part of their year in Florida, who then return home and inquire about the availability of our beers in New England. To date we’ve simply told then no, mainly due to not having the right logistics and distribution partner to ensure the freshness of our products at retail, but also in part to not having the production capacity to meet growing demand in Florida as well as any new out-of-market opportunity. Both of those hurdles have now been overcome and the time was right to test the waters, in a market that had close ties to.”
Over the last year, TBBC has invested over $1.5M into its production brewery in NW Tampa adding nearly 1K BBLs in tank space, plus new packaging technology including a GEA centrifuge and Wild Goose’s first 10-head canning line. Demand for TBBC’s beers has increased dramatically in the last two years and is currently on pace to produce 19,000 BBLs in 2019.
“Our goal is not to become a household name or even a notable player in the Boston market,” stated Mike Dyer, director of sales and business development for TBBC. “Instead, we simply hope to fulfill existing consumer demand while introducing a taste of Florida to a new market of craft enthusiasts. With our friends at Night Shift we can carefully pick the right mix of on/off premise accounts, keep inventory very low, and coordinate future shipments around our production schedule to ensure freshness. In short, you’ll need to hunt around to find our beers and that’s just the way we want it.”
The first small shipment of TBBC beers landed in Boston last week and are headed for stores now. A launch event held at Alma Nove in Hingham last Thursday, kicked off a series of events to help acquaint Boston area customers with TBBC beers. Consumers in the region can find dates/times for future samplings and events on TBBC’s social media platforms.