Just a few days removed from celebrating its sixth anniversary, Fort Myers Brewing co-owner and brewmaster Rob Whyte contemplates, only for a split second, his long-term goal.
“World domination,” he says jokingly. Mostly anyway. That includes going from weekend brewing in converted old dairy tanks into Southwest Florida’s largest independent brewery and taproom, their 20,000-square-foot facility tucked in the back row of a set of industrial buildings in the Gateway development in eastern Fort Myers. Now producing some 12,000 barrels of brew per year — or 372,000 gallons — the Whytes have a long-term goal of 30,000 to 50,000 barrels.
That’s a long way from their 500-barrel annual capacity when they opened Fort Myers Brewing in 1,500 square feet, including taproom and brewery, in 2013. Not only were they new to the region, so was their concept. The idea of brewing and serving beer on-site in a business park was so foreign Lee County’s zoning code had to first be amended to allow it.
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