Florida is weird. From the manufactured reality of its theme parks to the bizarre news documented daily by the Florida Man twitter account, the Sunshine State has a reputation for polarizing extremes. Maybe the heat and humidity drive people mad, or maybe the state has a magnetism that attracts that certain element, but regardless, Florida has a well-earned reputation for being weird.
For years, too, Florida lacked great beer. I was born, reared, and came of drinking age in Florida, and the options for a nascent craft-beer lover at the time were limited, to say the least. Antiquated laws about bottle size kept anything bottled in 22-ounce bombers out the state, and any European imports in standard sizes (375ml or 750ml) were similarly forbidden until the law finally changed in 2001.
The 1990s craft-beer boom brought out a few potential in-state players—Ybor City Brewing Company had a brief run, and the Hops Grill & Brewery chain brewed some passable beer at its dozen or so Florida locations before closing en masse—but still Floridians had to look to out-of-state breweries for most of their craft-beer fix.