Pensacola/Fort Walton Beach

Hey guys, I’m heading up to the Pensacola/Fort Walton Beach area this coming weekend and figured I’d ask around to see if there were any must-hit places while I was in the area. I figured I’d check out Pensacola Bay Brewing. Are there any other breweries or brewpubs located around the area that I should check out?

Pensacola Bay is the only pure brewery in the area. I enjoy all my visits there, even if the beers are not top notch (the Imperial Porter, however, is excellent).

McGuire’s Irish Pub is a good brewpub to visit. Food is surprisingly excellent, the atmosphere is a lot of fun, and the beers range from pretty good to blah. There is a Downtown Pensacola location (the original) and a Destin/FWB one.

I don’t know Ft. Walton as well. Your best bet for craft beer is Hopjack’s in Downtown Pensacola. For a bottle store, go to Four Winds, which is an international food market. If also has ridiculously good food (house made pesto/feta dip, smoked turkey dip, and tiramisu are all phenomenal, and they have a wide selection of meats and cheeses).

Thanks, Italarican, Four winds and McGuire’s sound great. I’ll have to check them out!

+1 on everything italirican said. I grew up there but go back every now and then. There was a Ritchie’s ( bottle shop) close to 4 winds. And yes, go there hungry and get food. It is awesome. Also, last time I was at Pensacola bay brewing they sold pint glasses that happened to have beer in them. At the end of our afternoon there, the waitress offered to "recycle" our glasses at $1 each I think. Not sure if they still do this, but just a heads up. I think they opened up a world of beer on paradox (downtown) too. They have lots on draft and I think sell singles retail

Awesome! Thanks for the info, Homer.

I guess my phone auto correct...paradox, should be palafox. not far from McGuires Downtown location. World of beer also has an app that you can select which location and see what they have on draft and available in the bottle. I think it gets update a couple times per week...doesn’t have prices but has awesome filter features if you want, say, a 12oz bottle of IPA...

This may be a bit premature, and I’m not sure how much interest there might be, but I would totally be down to meet up with some folks at Pensacola Brewing to share a few bottles, if they allow that there. I could bring some HF and some CCB beers if there is any interest in a potential meet-up.

If I weren’t an 8 hour drive away, I’d make an excuse to go there! Have a good time there!

Get a steak at McGuires, my preference is a filet(temp: Pittsburgh rare). I recommend ordering the barleywine. It is good and not on the menu but if they don’t have the barleywine then something else unique may be on that special tap(apricot DIPA, imperial stout, etc.). I typically go to the Destin one but both are similar.

^what they all said. Hit Pensacola Bay and McGuires. If you can make it to Destin there is a newer decent brewpub called Props. The plus side is there’s a good liquor/beer store in the same shopping center.

Take Blazer’s recc with a grain of salt... sometimes it ends up being a honey blonde or something dumb! But still good advice!

Originally posted by OmegaX
This may be a bit premature, and I’m not sure how much interest there might be, but I would totally be down to meet up with some folks at Pensacola Brewing to share a few bottles, if they allow that there. I could bring some HF and some CCB beers if there is any interest in a potential meet-up.