A new craft brewery in Tampa has recently announced plans to open their first tasting room in the Seminole Heights area of North Tampa.
Cold Storage Craft Brewery is the name. They've been at it for a few months, working out of the white storefront building at Florida Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr that used to be a Kash n' Karry. Now the independent brewery plans to open their facilities to the public with a new tasting room (bar) featuring all their great beers.
These include a handful of Cold Storage's southern-bred beers like their Florida Avenue Ale, Copperhead Ale, and Betchy Brown crafted under the direction of Verizon logistics executive turned brewing expert Bruce Talcott.
Talcott opened the brewery with partners Brent Berthy, and Andy DeLaParte, who used to own the former Cold Storage Café in Downtown Tampa.
The partners got a boost at their start from an unlikely source - Busch Gardens. The amusement park was phasing out their on-site brewery when Cold Storage was opening back in July of 2010. Their brewing equipment eventually made its way on to the market where Cold Storage purchased at least two fermenting tanks, two conditioning tanks and one brewing kettle which saved the burgeoning company a significant amount of startup costs.
Currently, Cold Storage's business has revved up thanks to deals with Florida beer distributors like Pepin Distributing which has put Cold Storage beers in over 150 bars throughout three different counties. They've also found a bottling partner that puts their beer into Publix, Sweetbay, Total Wine, ABC Fine Wine and Spirits, and a handful of convenience stores including 7-11 and Circle K.
We'll keep you posted as more news arises regarding the new Cold Storage Craft Brewery in Tampa.
