Brews by the Bay 2019: A Review

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of checking out Brews by the Bay hosted by the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.. If you’ve never heard of Brews by the Bay before it’s a craft  beer, food, and music festival. With over 100 types of beer, 30+ restaurants live music and even a silent disco!

I’ve always had a huge fascination with sea life (fun fact my dream job when I was little was to become a marine biologist, until I realized it wasn’t all about playing with dolphins and math was involved). That combined with my love of craft beer and food had me jumping at the gun to attend. The aquarium was kind enough to gift me tickets to share my overall experience with you guys and let you know what I thought.

If you’ve been following me for sometime now then you already know this, but just because a business or brand gifts me something does not mean I won’t keep it 100% with you guys. If I like something you’ll know about it and if I don’t, then you’ll REALLY know haha. In all seriousness, let’s dive into the details of the event.

The Unlimited Food Samples

Let me just start off by saying that over the past year I’ve been to quite a few events that claim to have ‘craft beer and food’ available. Usually, what that means, is they have a great beer selection available and crumbs for food so you’re starving. The other thing I tend to see are food focused events where there are one or two so called ‘craft beers’ available to sip on.

Penne alla Vodka with san marzano tomato, pancetta, onion, panna from Bavaro’s.

I’d never attended this before and they were really pushing the 40 plus breweries that would be there. I assumed we’d be absolutely starving by the end of the night, so a few of my friends and I went out to dinner before hand. BIG. MISTAKE. When I say I have never seen so many delicious, hearty, mouth-watering food options available at an event I really mean it.

As far as the eye could see there were tons of local restaurants with high quality food. We’re not talking hot dog carts and cotton candy, these were all top notch dishes. Everything from pasta, to seafood, to nitrogen ice cream that tastes like Captain Crunch! We were kicking ourselves for eating before we got there, but still managed to painfully eat our way through a few items.

The Craft Beer Tasting Selection

When a beer event isn’t put on by a local brewers guild or someone I know and respect I can be a little judgey. Okay, maybe not a little judgey, A LOT judgey. Craft beer’s popularity is at an all time high which means everyone and their grandmother is trying to get on the beer fest band wagon. 

Sampling some delicious IPA’s from Angry Chair Brewing Tampa, FL.

Personally I’m just not paying a crap ton of money for a festival to drink Goose Island and Shock Top when I could go down to my local Publix and grab them. No shade to anyone who does, it’s just not what I’m looking for out of a beer festival. I honestly think they did a great job of balancing out local breweries with the big names (you can check that list out here if you’re interested).

Some of the breweries I was really excited to see were Barrel of Monks, Hidden Springs Aleworks, Angry Chair and of course Big Top Brewing Company (shameless plug). I was also pleased to see breweries not bringing the same stuff available in cans or in their taproom. Southern Dissolution DIPA by Angry Chair and Southern Swells was fire if you’re wondering. 

I thought it was awesome that Coppertail Brewing did a collab with the Florida Aquarium called Best Dressed Bird. It’s a blonde ale which benefits the endangered African penguin. I love to see breweries doing good in the world, especially when it comes to the welfare of animals.

If you’re not a beer fan, which isn’t likely if you’re reading this blog right now, they also had some non-beer options available. Rekorderlig Cider (one of my favorite freaking cider makers of all time, if you haven’t checked them out yet what are you doing with your life?), Woodchuck Cider, and Wine Stream we’re all pouring too. It’s nice to know there are some other things available to drink if your plus one isn’t into beer.

The Aquarium & Entertainment

Can I just tell you what a TREAT it was to be able to sip on a cold beer while wandering around looking at sea life? Best. Day. Ever. Why aren’t there any adult only zoos and aquariums? Can we make that a thing? Because it needs to be. As someone with no kids who isn’t always the biggest fan of them, this being a 21+ event was amazing. Even if you’re not a drinker, an all adults evening with delicious food is enough reason to go to this event trust me!

Enjoying my beer samples with an amazing view of the anemones at the Florida Aquarium.

As we made our way through the aquarium there was no shortage of good tunes. Live bands were both inside and INCREDIBLE by the way. I don’t really consider myself a lover of local music or cover bands. Probably an unpopular opinion, I know, but both of these bands were honestly excellent. If live music wasn’t your thing they had a massive silent disco on the roof with 3 different DJ’s. We didn’t have time to join in before the event was over, but it looked like people were having a blast.

Is Brews by the Bay worth the money?

When I heard that tickets were $69 for general admission ($59 if you’re an aquarium member) I flinched a little. Ya girl is cheap, and that is a pretty high price point for a GA ticket. When you break it down, regular aquarium admission is around $30. You’re really paying about $40 for unlimited food, drinks, and entertainment. In my book for the whole experience of the event, I think it’s more than worth it and I would pay my own money to attend it next year.