Tampa Bay may hold the record as the oldest beer scene in Florida, dating back to the 1890s, but one of the area’s greatest advantages is the exchange of ideas and innovative enthusiasm bubbling up from some of its newest breweries.
From neighborhood-focused taprooms to innovative brewing spaces with deep roots in local history, these emerging breweries are redefining what it means to grab a beer in Tampa. As the craft beer landscape evolves, so too do the breweries of Tampa Bay, offering diverse styles, inclusive spaces, and unforgettable experiences for visitors and locals alike.
Common Dialect Beerworks
Common Dialect Beerworks celebrated two years in Tampa’s craft beer community in January 2025. Situated on Florida Avenue—a street that has become a hoppy highway through the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa—Common Dialect is a passion project of husband-and-wife team Mike and Kendra Conze. “The couple have worked to create a colorful and welcoming space, far from the minimalist and industrial-feeling breweries Tampa Bay is familiar with,” according to the brewery’s website. “Our goal is to be the go-to brewery for our community, providing an inclusive space where people can come together, share experiences, and find commonalities with one another.”
Mike asserts that Common Dialect is just that. “We’re a smaller, friendlier neighborhood place but we try to serve the bigger community and have something for everyone.”
Common Dialect’s beers are “more approachable,” Mike says. “We do everything. We’re more of a neighborhood brewery.”
Popular choices include Refractive Error, a hazy IPA; a Kölsch; and a Czech Pilsner. Mike, also the head brewer, says that he is “not as big into imperial stouts, but the brewery will tap a few from time to time,” along with Common Dialect’s award-winning Chiapas Porter, an imperial porter made with coffee, chilies, cacao, cinnamon, and vanilla, and several other dessert-themed beers for visitors with a sweet tooth or an adventurous streak.
Deviant Libation
Brewer Tim Ogden’s name has been synonymous with craft beer in the Tampa Bay for several years. Ogden was initially hired by the Hops chain of brewpubs in the 1990s and has been supporting other Bay Area breweries such as Cigar City Brewing and Tampa Bay Brewing Company with his talents ever since. Deviant Libation, which opened in January 2023, marks Ogden’s first foray into running his own brewery since becoming a brewer over two decades ago.
The goal for Deviant, according to Ogden, is “to open a place a little less typical to house these beverages that are often also a little less typical—something with appeal to more groups than a typical brewery may appeal to.” Ogden refers to it as “a space for the hardcore kids, the punks, the queer community; a space built with women in mind, as well as men and nonbinary folks—where members of the trans community feel safe and welcome just as much as anyone else.” He also described it as “a place that could be an experience.”
Ogden began rifling through his formidable recipe book upon opening Deviant and has wasted no time crafting remarkable beers such as The Crone Red IPA, Kiss of Darkness Porter, and Destruction Ritual Golden Ale.
Deviant Libation has also stepped up and helped the local community, making the small tasting room available for local and touring metal bands after Covid and adversity forced many small venues to close. “This has been a great symbiosis,” according to Ogden. “The bands have a place to play, and we can welcome people who might not have chosen to walk through the door.”
Late Start Brewing Company
Late Start Brewing Company has been planning a brewery in Tampa’s downtown district for years, and the team lived up to its name after repeated delays.
The brewery, which opened in September 2024, is the brainchild of three well-known Tampa brewers: Jordan Copher, Tyler Sankey, and Nick Streeter. It took three years to build the brewery in a former convenience store, and while it is still not a finished product, Late Start has begun making its mark on Tampa Bay as the brewery that is open the earliest (service starts at 8 a.m. with breakfast and coffee) with a menu that speaks to food lovers and beer enthusiasts alike.
The 2,500-square-foot facility on Cass Street in Tampa is home to Late Start’s 5-barrel brewing system, and the team has been thrilling visitors with its dedication to “classic styles and creative stuff,” according to co-founder and co-brewer Copher.
Popular beers include a pair of hazy double IPAs, Flagrant and Reckless. Sunset Junkie is the brewery’s core IPA, and Serious Moonlight, a robust porter, is usually on tap. A Belgian witbier will be in the rotation along with Cass Street Pub Ale, an English pub ale.
“As the market evolves, we have to evolve, too,” said Copher.
Copher says Late Start aims for “just all around quality, not being extreme on any level, and providing the most comfortable space for people to spend their time drinking their beers.”
Outcast Brewing Company
Outcast Brewing Company is the latest craft brewery to join the St. Petersburg brewing community in September 2024 in a space that previously housed two other craft breweries. According to owner Richie Hamm, the team was able to remake Outcast Brewing Company into a venue that speaks to everyone, no matter their preferred beverage. Outcast Brewing has a wine room called The Vintage and a room called The Lounge dedicated to craft cocktails and mocktails.
According to Hamm, Outcast Brewing strives to create a venue where people can get together to share live music, watch sporting events, or create other interactions that bring the community together.
“We want to be a community spot where people from anywhere can be, and that’s why our drinks are so varied, too,” Hamm said. “No matter who you are, what you’re looking for, or what your walk of life is like, there’s a spot you can feel like a part of what’s going on here. We want people to just come and enjoy being in their community, meet new people, and have a good time while drinking some good beer in the process.”
Sky Puppy Brewing
Veteran Tampa Bay brewer Matthew McKinnon had been urged by friends and family for many years to start his own commercial brewery, but he kept saying no, remembers Danielle Vergnaud-McKinnon, Matthew’s partner and co-founder of Sky Puppy Brewing. It took a chance meeting with artist and bronze sculpturist Copper Tritscheller before McKinnon began looking for a place to begin his work.
Initially, Tritscheller—whose sculptures are inspired by bats, also known as sky puppies— offered Matthew and Danielle a space to live in New Smyrna Beach while the couple was looking to build a brewery in the Atlantic coastal town. While they liked the beach and its potential, Vergnaud-McKinnon said they felt a pull from their ties to Ybor City, nearly 100 miles away. The duo evenutally found a space they could not turn down on Ybors City’s 8th Avenue. That space was the second firehouse ever built in the city of Tampa, dating back to 1888.
“One of the brewery’s longest delays,” recalls Danielle, “was getting the steel to reinforce the walls and make the building structurally sound.” After that, the duo continued to add touches to honor their connection with the building and its history, including a former bar and brewery called New World that was a neighbor to the current Sky Puppy space, where Danielle lived through some life-changing moments. “I had first dates [at New World], I went there after my grandmother’s funeral, I had my first legal beer served to me there. When they announced they were closing, Matthew committed to going every day for their last week. Then at the last call on the last night of New World Ybor City, Matthew proposed to me.”
With that many memories, the couple knew that there was only one space that could host Sky Puppy Brewing. “We knew that this piece of land or block in Ybor was just calling us back for a reason, and we wanted to preserve and give the community back something special.”
Then it was time to name the brewery. “To keep with [Copper’s] ethos about bats, Sky Puppy was a name that popped up,” Danielle recalls, “and we thought that those two words individually make you so happy, and together, it’s kind of cute and endearing.”
Ultimately, Sky Puppy Brewing became something more to Danielle and Matthew. “It’s a passion project,” asserts Danielle. “And I think that you can feel that when you enter the space.”
Sky Puppy Brewing opened in September 2024 and has been on a roll ever since. As for the beers, the taplist is a blend of the two owners’ styles, according to Danielle, who calls them “two different roads.”
Offerings include styles ranging from Vienna lager, double IPA, hazy IPA, schwarzbier, Czech Pilsner, helles, German Pilsner, and English porter.
“We get a little funky, too,” said Danielle. “We’re not scared to make styles we have been told don’t resonate, like a saison. Right now, we have a rye saison on tap.”
“Matthew and I both have a love for beer,” Danielle emphasizes, “and we want to inspire our team and our guests to be adventurous and try it.”
Wulfaven Brewing Company
Wulfaven Brewing Company is the first craft brewery in the Carrollwood neighborhood in Tampa. With its grand opening in October 2022, the brewery is a family affair with two generations of the Lazzara family collaborating within its walls.
According to the brewery, the idea for Wulfaven Brewing Co. started in 2017 when Joseph Lazzara and his father, Santo Lazzara, concocted the dream of one day owning their own brewery after being in the industry for a combined 30+ years. Two years later, the location was secured and the family hopped on board. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic would halt progress and cause innumerable delays.
Still, Santo and Joseph kept working behind the scenes. They broke ground on the brewery building in 2021.
The name Wulfaven is a combination of two words: wolf and haven, representing the family’s “pack” including friends, family, and community. Haven refers to the brewery’s safe space created for the community. The brewery aims for “crushable” beers, including Spring Fling, a Florida white ale with orange peel; and Tractor Pull, an American light lager.
Each new Tampa Bay brewery brings its unique vision to the region, blending tradition with innovation and offering something for every beer lover. Together with brewers across the region, the future of craft beer in Tampa Bay has never been brighter, inviting locals and visitors alike to share their enthusiasm for the beer community and the one-of-a-kind beer it continues to create.
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 Tampa Bay Beer: A Heady History. He also edits, reports, interviews and writes the story behind craft beer on the web at FloridaBeerNews.com.
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