Tour a Distillery This Spring Break For an On-Theme (Yet Highbrow) Experience

Distillation is the process that converts the sugars from grains or fruit into alcohol by way of evaporation using metal columns or pots known as stills. Spring break is the process that converts otherwise fine, young people into somewhat unrecognizable party demons by way of sun and alcohol. For a spring break experience that is both on-theme (i.e. alcohol-based), yet educational (i.e. “how does a blade of wheat become this potent, mind-altering elixir?”), a distillery tour is one way to beat the ennui of treading the same path between the pool, beach, bar, and hotel all week, without wreaking the kind of havoc that would surely ensue should one suggest anything so revolutionary as a visiting a museum. Distillery equals booze museum. Highbrow, yet on-theme. Fun to be had. Everyone wins.

The idea of touring a distillery is not exactly a modern invention, as many of the world’s finest spirits have been crafted for centuries in locations that were at least occasionally accessible to the public. However, small-batch, craft spirits are now on the rise, so much so that just about any given component of a Long Island Iced Tea—vodka, rum, gin, tequila—can be found in local distilleries who offer tours or tasting rooms within striking distance of the most popular spring break destinations.

South Florida Distillers

Where: Fort Lauderdale, FL

South Florida Distillers

If you’re spring breaking in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or otherwise Atlantic coast Florida, contact South Florida Distillers about a private group tour. On offer are a variety of rums to sample under the FWAYGO brand, including a grilled pineapple rum (ummm, daiquiri potential, hello?) as well as several agave-based spirits. (Can’t call it tequila unless it’s from Jalisco, but I imagine you still know the drill.)For full list of destinations, click the link

St. Patrick's Day 2019 events in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Naples, SWFL

Looking for something to do this St.Patty's Day weekend? Irish bands. Corned beef and cabbage. Parades. Irish dancers. Bagpipes. And gallons and gallons of green beer. That’s how Southwest Florida celebrates St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

Here are our picks for fun events happening Friday through Sunday, March 15-17. This isn’t a complete list, though. Many other local bars and venues are planning green beer, live bands and other St. Patrick’s Day events. Check the websites and Facebook pages for your favorite local haunts.

Plenty of green beer will be poured St. Patrick's Day in Southwest Florida. (Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Cape Coral

• St. Paddy’s Day at Nevermind: The Cape bar and restaurant kicks off a three-day celebration with Irish food, 12 Irish and rock bands and host Shamrock Shannon from Friday through Sunday. Admission is $5 Friday after 8 p.m., $5 Saturday during daytime, $10 Saturday night and $5 all day Sunday. Nevermind Awesome Bar & Eatery, 927 Cape Coral Parkway E., downtown Cape Coral.  facebook.com/nevermindbarandgrill
• Saint Patrick’s Day Celebration: Small kids can celebrate the holiday early at Four Freedoms Park with holiday-themed crafts, games, snacks, a scavenger hunt and a leprechaun goodie-bag station. For ages 1-7. 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday. $12. Four Freedoms Park, 4818 Tarpon Court, Cape Coral. Call 574-0804 to register.
• Shenanigan’s Wake: The local “Celt-rock” band brings its St. Patrick’s Day weekend tour to Cape Coral, including a countdown to St. Paddy’s at 10 seconds til midnight. Shenanigan’s Wake plays a rowdy version of traditional Celtic songs. 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday. Free. Rack’em Spirits & Times, 1011 S.E. 47th Terrace, downtown Cape Coral. facebook.com/RackemspiritsandTimes
• St. Patrick’s Day Trolley: This fifth annual pub crawl lets you ride trolleys throughout downtown Cape Coral and stop at 12 different places for holiday-themed custom drinks. 3-9 p.m. Sunday. $17 plus $2.50 for each drink. Check-in happens at Big John Plaza and in front of Dixie Roadhouse, downtown Cape Coral. facebook.com/SouthCapeHospitalityAndEntertainmentAssociations
• St. Patrick’s Day in the Bavarian Beer Garden: Drink German and Irish beers and eat German and Irish food at this event that also includes live music. Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. $3 admission (Free for ages 12 and younger). German American Social Club, 2101 S.W. Pine Island Road, Cape Coral. 283-1400 or gasc-capecoral.com
• PaddyWagon Irish Pub: This party includes drink specials, games, giveaways, The Doghouse food truck and live music from Will Kaiser (noon to 3 p.m.), Deven Starr (4-7 p.m.) and Shaun Miller (8-11 p.m.). Noon to 2 a.m. Sunday. Free. PaddyWagon Irish Pub, 1431 S.E. 16th Place, Cape Coral. 800-4867 or facebook.com/paddywagoncc

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The annual St. Patrick’s Day Block Party returns to downtown Fort Myers on Sunday, March 17. (Photo: Kinfay Moroti/news-press.com)

More: Live music in SWFL: Winger, Trina, Melissa Etheridge, Steve Miller, etc.

More: Coming to Mann Hall: 'Hamilton,' 'Cats,' 'Come From Away' and more in 2019-20

Fort Myers

• St. Patrick’s Day Block Party: The annual block party includes live bands, deejays, games with prizes, food and drink specials, and lots of cold beer. Noon to 10 p.m. Sunday. Free. Downtown Fort Myers. fortmyersriverdistrictalliance.com
• City Tavern St. Patty’s Day Bash & Street Party: Chef Brian Duffy will cook up corned beef & cabbage cheese steaks for this 20th annual event. Plus drink specials and live bands Faded Roots, Red Hannah, The Freecoasters and Guilty. 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday. Free. City Tavern, 2206 Bay St., downtown Fort Myers. 226-1133 or mycitytavern.com
• Clancey’s St. Patrick’s Day Celebration: The party includes green beer, live bands, bagpipers, Irish dancers, face painting and a St. Patrick’s Day menu with shepherd’s pie, corned beef and cabbage, and other Irish dishes. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Free. Clancey’s Restaurant, 11481 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers. 482-3241 or clanceysrestaurant.com
• Shamrock and Roll Party: This Irish-themed bash features prizes, green beer, giveaways and local rock band Red Hannah. Starts at 10 p.m. Sunday. Free. Buddha Rock Club, 12701 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers. 482-8565 or buddharockclub.com

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St. Patrick's Day themed clothing was all the rage at last year's St. Patrick’s Day Block Party in downtown Fort Myers. (Photo: Kinfay Moroti/news-press.com)

North Fort Myers

• Johnny & Patti Revue St. Paddy’s Day Party: Singing couple Johnny and Patti Russo sing pop, rock, country and dance hits from the 50s to today at this holiday dinner party. The restaurant will be serving up corned beef and cabbage, fried fish and more. 6-10 p.m. Friday. Free. Victory Lane Café, 4120 Hancock Bridge Parkway, Cape Coral. 995-0340
• St. Patrick’s Day Bash: This free event includes live Irish music by Chuck Peterson, Irish food, green beer, Irish music and dancers, bagpipers, an Irish adult costume contest and more. Noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The Shell Factory & Nature Park, 2787 N. Tamiami Trail, North Fort Myers. 995-2141 or shellfactory.com

South Fort Myers

• Second annual St. Patrick’s Day Mall Crawl: Bell Tower Shops and iHeartMedia join forces for two hours of revelry, food, drink and music. Radio personalities from four Southwest Florida radio stations will play music and meet with fans at World of Beer, Bistro 41, Cru and Society. DJ Ramo G from The Beat will be spinning music in Center Court. Participating restaurants will offer Irish-themed food and drink specials, raffles and giveaways. 6-8 p.m. Saturday. Free. Bell Tower Shops at U.S. 41 and Daniels Parkway, south Fort Myers. 489-1221 or thebelltowershops.com

Fort Myers Beach

• Fort Myers Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade: The annual parade travels along Estero Boulevard from Santini Marina Plaza North to the Church of the Ascension. The boulevard will be closed for about one hour, starting at 9:45 a.m. Saturday. The parade starts at 10 a.m. Free. NOTE: The parade was originally scheduled for March 17. Takes place on Estero Boulevard in Fort Myers Beach. 591-8803 or facebook.com/events/1960518927350428
• St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance: Celebrate the holiday with dancing, raffle prizes, a traditional Irish menu and live music from the 17-piece dance band Memory Makers. Purchase a shamrock and write a message to be delivered to a veteran. The event is a fundraiser for the Southwest Florida Military Museum & Library and Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida. 5-10 p.m. Saturday. $35 (or $65 for two). Cash bar. Fort Myers Beach Shrine Club, 19171 San Carlos Blvd., Fort Myers Beach. 652-1613, 541-8704 or facebook.com/goodwillswfl
• For full list of events please click the link

Instacart’s alcohol delivery is now available in 14 states, including Florida

Instacart has expanded its alcohol delivery to now be available in 14 states and Washington, DC from nearly 100 different retailers.

With the roll-out, Instacart alcohol delivery is currently available to 40 million homes in the U.S., and the number of alcohol deliveries on the platform has more than doubled since the same time last year.

Partners who participate in alcohol delivery on Instacart include Albertsons, Kroger, Publix, Schnucks and Stater Bros., alongside wine and liquor stores such as BevMo!, Binny’s Beverage Depot and Total Wine & More.

The list of states where Instacart offers alcohol delivery include California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Washington, DC.

Instacart started rolling out alcohol delivery a year ago, and has quickly become a competitive player in the space. Postmates introduced alcohol delivery in 2017, whereas strictly alcohol delivery services like Drizly, Minibar and Saucey have been around for a while.

Here is what Instacart’s chief business officer, Nilam Ganenthiran, had to say:

Part of grocery shopping for many people goes beyond getting fresh produce, meats and pantry staples, and includes picking up the perfect bottle of wine for a dinner party or their favorite beer to sip while watching the big game. By working alongside our retail partners to add alcohol to the marketplace, we’re offering customers more choice and making it easier for Instacart to be their ‘one-stop-shop’ to get the groceries they need – including beer, wine and spirits – from the retailers they love.

When Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017, some speculated that Instacart might be hit hard. But the deal also represented the digitization of a massive, traditional industry. Considering Instacart’s retail partner growth over the past year, it seems that the Whole Foods acquisition might have made Instacart an attractive platform for some retailers.

The company now serves more than 80 percent of U.S. households, which was Instacart’s stated goal for the end of 2018. Across its 300 retail partners, Instacart now delivers from 20,000 grocery stores across 5,500 cities in North America.

1988 Was the Most Important Year for Craft Beer

Thirty years ago, Gary Fish walked into a bank looking for a loan. He told the banker about his plans to build a restaurant with a brewery in Bend, Oregon. The banker, confused by the very concept, shut Fish down, saying, “We don’t loan to restaurants.” Fish tried to explain the brewery aspect, but was met with “We don’t know beer.” “We went back and forth a while,” Fish said. “Eventually, it was, ‘All right, thanks for your time.’ Banks didn’t want to talk to us. At that time, there wasn’t a marketplace, no industry, no one knew how to make beer.” Looking back from the present era where San Diego's Ballast Point sold to Constellation Brand for $1 billion and craft beer is omnipresent, the bank sounds crazy. But 30 years back, few people knew anything outside the macro lagers. Fewer still would lend money to upstarts seeking to make their own weird beers. Fish eventually did secure enough for his little brewery. He opened Deschutes Brewery in 1988. The brewery has grown into one of the largest and most influential breweries in the US on the strength of well-respected flagships like Black Butte Porter and Mirror Pond Pale Ale, an experimental barrel-aging program, and newer additions like Fresh Squeezed IPA. 

Deschutes made its debut in a small and stagnant beer world. Yes, there was craft beer out there: Appliance heir Fritz Maytag had purchased San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing in 1965, which is widely seen as the starting point for the modern era of craft brewing. But not many people followed suit: fewer than 90 breweries opened their doors between 1965 and 1987. The breweries that did make waves -- like Bell’s Brewery in Michigan, Sierra Nevada in California, Boston Beer Co. -- certainly helped pique interest and started the heavy lifting of making people rethink beer, but they were bright sparks on wet tinder. 

In 1988, that tinder exploded. 

Fish, way out in Bend, had no idea he was part of a burgeoning revolution, nor did the nearly 60 other independent breweries that would open during the course of that year, many of which helped shape the industry into the powerful force it is today. 

The list of so-called Class of ’88 breweries includes plenty of familiar names. In Cleveland, Great Lakes Brewing was restoring the brewing history of the Rust Belt town, while in New York Brooklyn Brewery started distributing a caramel-colored lager. In Oregon, several Nike executives branched out to brew up quirky beers at Rogue Ales & Spirits, while in Chicago, Goose Island Beer Co. started its Windy City legacy. In northern California, North Coast Brewing gained a foothold, and in Denver,Wynkoop Brewing helped lay the foundation for an all-out craft takeover a mile above sea level.

7 Irish Beers You Should Try That Aren't Guinness

By. Zach Mack



Despite being almost intrinsically linked to beer, it’s almost tragic that Ireland isn’t better known for its burgeoning brew scene. Thanks to government-enacted legislative changes and direct government support for upstart craft brewers, the number of breweries on the Emerald Isle has skyrocketed in the past decade to over 60, and while consumption of beer overall in the country was slightly down, craft beer consumption was up 12.7%. That means a demand for Irish beers beyond the ones associated with the "perfect pour." Start with these prime Irish beers, all of which are available in the US and represent a wide array of styles that go well beyond the traditional stout or whatever dyed-green adjunct lager your favorite bar calls Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

Lough Gill Round the Clock Stout

Stout, 5.2%
Sligo
Beer geeks in the Northeast are probably no stranger to Lough Gill, which has been available in the US market for close to two years. The broadly satisfying portfolio includes everything from Berliner Weisses to Irish Barleywines, and they’ve even done an “oyster gose” collab with Industrial Arts and Thin Man Brewing. But even coming from a country that is all but synonymous with stouts, they’ve managed to go above and beyond with Round the Clock, a well-balanced “breakfast stout” made with Irish oats sourced from Flavahan’s. The rich flavors of freshly brewed coffee are up front and center over the medium-full body whose creamy texture never comes close to overwhelming the palate.

Carlow Brewing O'Hara's Irish Red

Irish red ale, 4.3%
Carlow

Unlike most of the other young upstarts on this list, Carlow (better known as O’Hara’s) can actually trace its history way back to Ireland’s first craft beer boom in 1996. But even for a beer that’s been available stateside for much of its existence, there are few breweries anywhere in the world who have avoided the temptation of trend chasing as well as Carlow. Take their Irish Red, for example, a style that has been as bastardized and lost to the sands of market forces perhaps more than any other. In the hands of many, it’s an overly sweet, unbalanced toffee bomb. In the case of O’Hara’s, it is a true-to-style, honest-to-goodness take with a refreshingly light body, a caramel-kissed toasty maltiness that soothes the palate, and a crisp, smooth finish that avoids the cloying profile of other beers supposedly made in this style. You owe it to yourself to revisit this done the right way.To see the full list and continue with original article, click the link!

Corona is tapping into the non-beer drink trend with 3 tropical lime malt beverages

New from Corona is its first non-beer product, Corona Refresca, a flavored malt beverage available in three varieties: Passionfruit Lime, Guava Lime and Coconut Lime. Coming later in March to six states – California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina — and nationally in early May. (Photo: Corona)

Corona is branching out beyond beer with a trio of tropical-flavored refreshing booze-spiked beverages.

The beer brand's first non-beer beverage, Corona Refresca, is a flavored malt beverage available in three varieties: Coconut Lime, Guava Lime and Passionfruit Lime. The Guava and Passionfruit flavored drinks will be available in six-packs ($9.99), while the Coconut Lime flavor can be found in a 12-pack ($16.99) with all three flavors.

The drinks will hit the market later this month in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina before going nationwide in early May.

Corona's new drinks, which weigh in at less than 199 calories per 12-ounce serving and 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, are the latest products in a trend that shows no signs of cooling off.

Sparkling, refreshing flavored beverages and seltzers are big sellers within a mixed drinks category that saw sales rise 6 percent in 2018, according to International Wine and Spirits, a research firm that tracks the industry. Those products were outperformers in an overall U.S. beer and spirits industry that faced declines for the third straight year, IWSR says.

Among the top sellers are Smirnoff Spiked Sparkling Spritzers, as well as Bud Light premium malt beverage drinks and Spiked Seltzers – just two of several beverages owned by Anheuser-Busch – and Redd's and Steel Reserve drinks (owned by MillerCoors). White Claw Hard Seltzers had triple-digit growth in 2018, IWSR says.

Overall, sales of the top 20 selling flavored malt beverages rose 11.6 percent to $2.6 billion over the 52-week period ending Jan. 27, 2019, according to IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm, which tracks retail sales at grocery stores, convenience stores, drug stores, mass market stores and other outlets.

"We know consumers are seeking an alternative malt beverage experience," said Ann Legan, vice president of brand marketing for Corona, which tested Corona Refresca with consumers. The drinks are "for multi-cultural females and males who are looking for a premium spiked refresher that delivers a taste of the tropics," she said.

Just as consumers have embraced sparkling waters as lower-sugar and lower-calorie alternatives, alcohol imbibers are also seeking healthier options with less booze, says IWSR's U.S. president Brandy Rand. "As these products are also in cans, they are portable and convenient which appeals to consumers. They also fill a gap for non-beer drinkers looking for something easy to drink," she said.

Judge: Family that ran Hogan's Irish Bar can remove property from shuttered Cape Canaveral pub

By. Rick Neale

MELBOURNE — The family that operated Hogan's Irish Bar may soon be allowed to re-enter the pub to remove inventory, equipment and possessions — some of which were imported from Ireland.

On Feb. 19, property owner Vincent Keenan shut down the North Atlantic Avenue tavern just south of Cape Canaveral,, triggering a social media uproar. Pub founder Patrick Hogan says he was wrongfully evicted, while Keenan says he fired an under-performing employee.

Keenan has not let the Hogans return to the site since the closure. On Feb. 21, Hogan requested an emergency temporary injunction to retrieve personal property and fixtures. An agreement was struck during a Wednesday hearing at the Melbourne Courthouse.

“They can have the bar. They can have everything in the building. I want an empty building," Keenan testified on the witness stand.

“They can take the sinks. I wish they’d take everything. Let’s make it that they take everything off the property. Because I don’t want to be left with four or five dumpsters of garbage — which is what I have now," Keenan said.

"Everything off the property, except the concrete building and the air conditioners and the plumbing attached," he said.

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