SITREP: Old Coast Brewing

So, I am on vacation with the ladies, checking out our National and State parks, staying in CCC cabins, attempted camping, and staying at a pirate themed Hostel in St. Augustine. The weather has been uncooperative this week, so I decided to give the ladies a break from canoeing in thunderstorms and head over to the local brewery for an afternoon.

Old Coast Ales has been open for two years now, and is located just south of St Augustine on US1. They have a 7BBl system, and are pretty small. They have partnered with the taco restaurant next door, who delivers food to hungry customers. It was raining a squall, so I am using their stock photo for the exterior shot.

Inside, I found Riley, my beertender, who came from the craft cocktail scene, within which we shared a friend, and he began lining up a great selection of English beers that were perfect for a rainy afternoon. The Brown ale was roasty, well-brewed, and got a lot of its bitterness from the roast malt, and not the hops, like a traditional English Brown.  The Porter, though darker, lacked that roasty bitterness, but felt weightier, and was quite quaffable. The Red was great, as were the West Coast IPA, and the Hazy, which would honestly be a great beer for a hot sunny BBQ in Florida.

I ordered two crowlers which Riley stood for a video and luckily a photo shoot, as I cannot get the video to upload, which is due partly to my Luddism. We talked soda, soda jerking and presentation, and discussed how our opinions of Bukowski changed once we actually had healthier relationships with women. (Riley has a PhD in Literature)

I met with their head brewer, Shawn, and we discussed the finer points of living in small town America, the growing scene here, and took wild guesses on the future of the industry. Their best seller is a blonde ale, and then their hazy session IPA, both of which retail for the same price. They also include the VAT in their pricing, so doing math is not left to customers. Something I think we can adopt.

L: Shawn, R: A regular irregular.

One of the things I liked about this place was that they had a beer board, where a customer could buy a beer for someone. There were beers bought for local realtors, employees of the Gator farm, Local Firemen, you name it.

The beer board

The person has 30 days to claim their beer, and they had to buy a second board to fulfill all the requests.

I got my crowlers and a lesson on crowler filling, and took my leave.  I will certainly be back.

Sanitizing the can and lid.

I did not get a good picture of Riley purging the can of O2, and adding CO2. They do this with an open line on the taps that is directly attached to the CO2 system.

Filling the Crowler with delicious beer. Note the lid.

Sealing her off.

Final note: I went to a craft beer bar, and they had this sign up, which I found ironic, and funny.