2014 was an amazing year for The Brew Bus, Tampa craft beer, and the Florida beer scene in general. In November, Livability.com ranked Tampa as the #5 Best Beer City in the US based on beer consumption, beer preference, award-winning breweries, and breweries per capita. This should come as no surprise — in September, the state of Florida surpassed 100 breweries with another 30 or so on the way. We have seen the growth and enthusiasm of the local craft beer community first hand and we couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it.

We’re Brewing More Beer Than Ever Before

It doesn’t seem that long ago when Brew Bus Brewing was making only two variations of beer in 2012. In 2013 we kicked it up by introducing Last Stop IPA and You’re My Boy Blue, and distributed 300 barrels. But we refused to quit. In 2014 we introduced Double Decker English-Style Porter, redesigned our cans (which are flying off shelves), and brewed 1,000 barrels of our beer. Our distribution expanded to cover parts of Virginia, plus New York City and Philadelphia.

Detour Series Kegs in Tampa and South Florida

Our limited release Detour Series brews were a hit – in collaboration with Cigar City Brewing, we were able to share these original handcrafted brews with you at local bars and breweries. These recipes included a Blood Orange IPA, Nutella Porter, Açai Mango IPA, and a Wood Aged Rollin’ Dirty Red Ale among others. If you missed your chance to try one of these, don’t worry because experiments like these will continue in 2015.

More Tours, More Events, More Busses, More Cities

As the local craft beer scene exploded in 2014 with more than 10 new breweries in the Tampa Bay area, our tours grew right along with it. During Tampa Bay Beer Week alone, we hosted 25 tours. Our tours grew so much we added an additional 14 passenger bus in Tampa and expanded our tours to South Florida with our second 23 passenger bus. In total, we transported 5,894 passengers.

Looking Forward to 2015

We’re entering 2015 with big ambitions for the company. This month we introduced our weekly public events the Full Pour Tour and Sampler Tour. These will be happening every week, giving the public more opportunities to visit our local breweries. We’ll be doing more special events like our upcoming Crafts, Ciders & Cigars and Stand up & Ride events. We’re on pace to produce 4,000 barrels and plan to expand our distribution even further. We have our sights set on additional cities for our tours in Florida and beyond and plan to have two more by May. Our first two years have seemed to fly past and we couldn’t be more grateful for the support that we have received so far and look forward to sharing more good times and good beer with everyone.