I’m in Orlando for work. I have limited free time, but I’d love to find a brewery or bottle shop. What is the top brewery I should hit if I only have time for one?

I can't make any specific recommendations as I have not visited Orlando breweries or shops in a while. This link should give you a good starting point.

Brewery: Sideward
Mead: Zymarium
Bottle shop: GB bottle shop,.. Also Redlight Redlight.

second Redlight Redlight

on my last visit there was a lot of buzz around gatlin hall brewing.. they've won some awards recently and are one of the few breweries to focus on lagers and belgian styles.

From an August 29 FB post:

Gatlin Hall Brewing
Cheers to 3 years! In honor of our 3 year anniversary, all 16oz draft beers will be $3 off all day from Thursday, August 29th thru Sunday, September 1st!
We are also excited to announce that Sunday, September 1 will be our last day operating as Gatlin Hall Brewing. It has been our pleasure to support our local community and all of our loyal customers over the past 3 years, and we thank you for all the love you have shown us! We are not going away, but instead have plans to renovate and rebrand our space to provide even more exciting offerings for all of you!
So stay tuned for more details on our improvements very soon, and come by this week to have a pint as we say ‘see you later’!

I’m gonna piggyback this thread.

Staying west of Orlando in a week and a half and we’re going for my younger daughter’s dance competition. We have a house near Davenport/Reunion. I’m looking primarily for pick up options, primarily lager, IPAs (Parish), maybe a heavy hitter or 2 and have circled a few ABCs, been to the one in West Disney before (not too bad but the Buena Vista one looks better maybe) and noticed there is a Total Wine in Millenia Plaza that looks relatively close.

What I guess I’m asking is, are these my best options and is there anything a little more local I should maybe look for? We’re going to Universal while we’re there and I think her comp is at the Orlando Omni so if there’s any tips for around those 2 areas that would be helpful too. Thanks in advance.

Half Barrel Beer project has a small but excellently curated to go section and all their options can be found on Untappd. If you have the ability to hit a family friendly, and very under the radar brewery, I’d hit HomeState brewing. They have in house coffee, excellent beer and food and to go options all in a very accommodating space.

i also see that since this thread, gatlin hall has rebranded as runabout brewing. less belgians more hazies. womp womp *sadface*

Tactical and Sideward are the best breweries in Orlando. GB Bottle Shop probably has the best selection. Zymarium is an amazing Meadery.

will second tactical and sideward as two of my favorites.

ravenous pig in winter park is probably my #1 right now. their food is on par with their beers. we hit the HH in the beer garden, then go in for dinner at the bar for more HH prices.
GB is my favorite bottle shop (with taps).

glad to see gatlin is still around, a bit out of the way for us, but has a great outside area.
will try to get to half barrel at some point and report back.

Just found this thread to look for some recs. And if anyone is in the area and likes haze they should definitely try out Brap! Brap! from here.

Pinging this - as I review the list of breweries here, are there ones that are out of the fray of theme parks? Going for business in April - I'd like to go someplace where I can turn off and sink into a pint or two of quality local stuff.

All of those breweries and bars mentioned above apart from Half Beer Project are in North Orlando (an hour away of theme parks and tourist areas) and the best thing is they are within a 15 to 20 min drive radius of each other.

Alright. So I grabbed a ticket to Monday’s Magic playoff game. What’s close to the Kia Center to pregame?

Depends how close you want to be

Ok. Say more…

Haha no I need you to say more.....walking distance? Short drive...10, 20, 30 minutes?

What are you looking for