It’s always exciting when a new brewery opens in town, and Castle Church Brewing has certainly stirred up some excitement. A week ago I had the chance to go and see what they were all about on a rainy Monday night following their Grand Opening.
Let’s start with the facility. They are located at 6820 Hoffner Ave in Orlando in a 10,000 sq ft warehouse. The warehouse has a very modern feel to it with the polished concrete floors and very high ceilings. They apparently purchased the shipping containers that their brewing equipment came in and they used the containers to create spaces, and a really neat feel to the place.
Up front they have a nice chill lounge feel with couches where you can gather with your friends to enjoy a few pints while soaking up the nice view of the brewery and bar.
The rear of the facility has picnic tables, a fountain and what appears to be an area for Church service that can honestly be transformed quickly into a space for just about anything.
The Brewhouse
The part that stuck me the most of course was the brew house. I was given a short behind the scenes tour by Joelle one of the owners who was super receptive and welcoming to my request to a snap a few pics for this post.
They have a 20bbl steam brew house which is just massive. I quickly noticed that these guys were not planning anything small with this system as they even have a grain auger. Though I doubt that anyone in their right mind would have a 20bbl system without one. But it is something that you don’t see every day in breweries here in Orlando.
As you progress down the side of the brewery you see their line up of 10bbl Unitanks which are all dwarfed by the massive 20bbl tank. When I had asked about this it seems that they are going to be upgrading the 10bbl tanks to 20bbl tanks as time goes on and demand requires it.
The Beers
Now, I will admit that I totally forgot to write down what we had that night, so please bear with me if my memory isn’t the greatest. To start Jenn and I each got a flight of beer, and between the two flights we had a bit of pretty much everything.
The beer pictured above is the Luther Lager which comes in at 6.2% ABV is 26 IBU and about 7 SRM. This beer was a great lager, and I was really impressed with how brite the beer was. The beer that I enjoyed most was the Indulgences DIPA which was phenomenal. They also had a Florida IPA which was really good as well. When I had asked what made it a Florida IPA, the bartender told me that it was because of the fruity notes of the beer which was quite citrusy. It was sort of like the hop characteristics of a Hazy IPA but super brite and not hazy at all.
Castle Church also does something which is unique to the area with their growlers. They don’t use the typical glass growers, rather they use a plastic bag very similar to what you would find in a boxed wine. This is pretty neat as it supposedly keeps the beer fresher, and carbonated better and longer than traditional glass growlers.
Final Thoughts
I had the pleasure of meeting Aaron, one of the owners a few weeks back when we were all at the Orlando Weekly Beer Fest, and he was a super cool guy. It was great to be able to come out and see what they have accomplished and taste their beer. The beer was great, and the vibes of the brewery itself were really welcoming especially on this chilly rainy night here in Orlando.
I look forward to visiting the brewery again soon, and I encourage you to do the same.
Castle Church Brewing is located at: 6820 HOFFNER AVE #1 ORLANDO, FL
Mon – Thurs 2pm-10pm
Fri 2pm-12am
Sat 11am-12am
Sun 1pm-5pm
