Orlando may be a dream destination to those who don’t live in Florida. But to me, everything Orlando stands for – tourism, wasting life away in long lines, spending ridiculous amounts of money at the parks – is not my scene. So how funny is it that Ben and I spent our one year wedding anniversary weekend there?? We received a free weekend getaway just to go to a timeshare meeting. After spending two hours saying “no” we were free to spend the next 3 days together. And where did we go you might ask? A self made brewery tour like we usually do! Only this time it was must cooler because at brewery stop #2 we learned about the Central Florida Ale Trail.
There are 18 breweries on the map to be stamped in order to receive the special Ale Trail growler. Then there’s another 8 in planning – we actually found out at least one of those was opened already but I guess no stamp required to get your growler.
Ben and I have become the masters of “one and done” when we have short vacations. This allows us to explore more instead of sitting in one place for 5 hours. So we were able to achieve 9 stamps on the trail over the weekend. It should have been 10 but we didn’t have the trail map at the first brewery we went to. We also hit up a few that weren’t on the map at all – don’t judge me!
Of those ten on the map, here’s my top two picks that you should check out when your in the Orlando area:
If you like sours and wild ales, then Hourglass Brewing is a must try! The brewers are big fans of this style and even brand it as Sourglass. The sour Berliner Weiss was by far one of the best we’ve had. Of course we brought our growlers and got a fill of this amazing liquid! The brewery itself is large and open with lots of eclectic decor – or what they call geek culture. There’s also tabletop and console games to play for free. We chatted with one of the brewers for a while which is always cool to speak to the man behind it all.
And if you want some delicious food for cheap, walk next door to Wako Taco. Their staff was super friendly too.
Redlight, Redlight Beer Parlour is a big place! Open doors in the front and the back garage door open for a nice cross breeze and a cozy outdoor space. This place was intimate in lighting and busy. Lots of different groups of people chilling and enjoying great beer. But it could have been so busy becaus they had their Oktoberfest party that afternoon and we arrived at the end. They had a large chalk wall with their beer list and man were there so many choices, at least 20! And again, another brewery that specializes in sours and wild beers. I think I love Orlando? (They’re after my heart) I thoroughly enjoyed the Should I Stay or Should I Gose.
So there you have it, I love Orlando for their love of sour beers! We can’t wait to go back and hit more of the breweries on the trail map so we can earn our growler! If you’re a beer lover too then you gotta get your free growler too. Do it!
Adventure Burns 
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