The eternal summer of Florida is not for the feint of heart. While many move down to The Sunshine State to evade Old Man Winter, the emerging craft beer scene is drawing an increasing number of inspired brewers like Ken and Julia Rosenthal. The husband and wife pair of brewers came to Florida by a different road, but are working to keep Florida on the map for unique beers.
The Rosenthals began their brewing careers at Anheuser-Busch breweries, but left to pursue careers in engineering. After a few years in that field, the smell of hops and the potential of being business owners drew them back to their Floridian roots—but not before a stop over in Austin, Texas.
In Austin, the couple got bit by the craft beer bug. Julia says that seeing breweries like Jester King make a go of their dream inspired her and Ken to reopen discussions of brewery ownership. Those dreams got bigger as the Rosenthals traveled to the West Coast and enjoyed the fresh, aromatic hoppy ales that San Diego and San Francisco are known for. These beery adventures led the Rosenthals back to their southern homes and the Tampa Bay brewing community in hopes of bringing aggressively hoppy beer with them.
Bringing Hoppy Beer to Tampa Bay
Their past experiences shaped the future of what would become Pair O’ Dice Brewing While at Anheuser, Ken and Julia grew and learned many lessons, chiefly the importance of batch consistency. In Austin, they learned the value of experimentation and brewing the beers that they enjoyed.
In Florida, they set out to carve a niche in the community for hop-forward beers at a time when many breweries were making one or two hoppy beers, but not making hops their calling card.
Pair O’ Dice Brewing focuses on making the best hoppy beers that they can. That mission comes out of the taps in numerous seasonal offerings and three core beers:
- Hop Bet Red IPA: the grassy and piney caramel red that shines both in malt and in hops.
- Nina Wheat Ale: the wheat ale that shines with orange peel and coriander in addition to the bready background flavors.
- Lil’ Joe Oatmeal Stout: this roasty and chocolatey stout comes in at 6% ABV and plays well with food.
Pair O’ Dice’s most award-winning beer, their Lucky Lucy Strawberry Blonde, is also their most challenging to brew. Lucky Lucy is made with 350 pounds of Plant City strawberries added to every 15-barrel batch.
Limited tappings? The Clearwater brewery has those as well. Pair O’ Dice doubled down on hoppy beers with their most recent limited release beers which include The Stickman Double IPA, clocking in at a whopping 9.5 percent and The Pit Boss, a 13.7 percent bruiser of a triple IPA.
The Hop Streak
In 2015, the brewery is focused on hop-forward ales and lagers. Their new series of beers, “The Hop Streak” is designed to allow Floridians to enjoy hop-forward beers as they were intended to be enjoyed: bright, aromatic, balanced and FRESH. During every month of 2015, Pair O’ Dice Brewing will release a new beer in the series. The high frequency, single batch, hop-forward beer series encourages distributors, retailers and consumers to drink hoppy beers at their freshest.
The brewery has grown in bounds since opening around Halloween of 2013. The brewery has created a total of six jobs, including assistant brewer Kyle Nadeau, formerly of Mayflower Brewing.
Pair O’ Dice is currently available in five counties around Tampa Bay with plans to expand further into Florida in the coming year. While the Rosenthals have grand plans for Pair O Dice Brewing, none of them involve distributing beyond Florida’s borders.
“If you want Pair O’ Dice beer,” Ken says, “you’ve got to come to paradise.”
Mark DeNote is a wandering beer writer who keeps a home in Florida and an eye on the road in search of fresh, local beer. Mark is a teacher at heart, and enjoys talking about beer and beer history almost as much as tasting beer. Mark is the author of The Great Florida Craft Beer Guide and he edits, reports, interviews and writes the story behind craft beer on the web at FloridaBeerNews.com.
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