Islamorada Brewery and Distillery
Islamorada Brewing Company was started when some college friends from Islamorada wanted to make small batches of beer locally that would be full bodied and flavorful, but still light and refreshing enough to enjoy on an average day in the Florida Keys. Beer that is suitable for enjoying on the beach or on a boat. Ideal for one of Islamorada’s famous sandbar parties, or for enjoying alongside fresh seafood after a spearfishing trip. The result was a craft brewery at Mile Marker 82 along the Overseas Highway that immediately became popular with both locals and tourists.
Their flagship beer is Sandbar Sunday, an aromatic wheat beer with notes of orange zest, and the barest hint of cardamom and coriander. Similar to this is Island Citrus Ale, which is slightly more intense with stronger citrus notes. It’s brewed with key limes, lemons, and Florida oranges, and there is an aroma of orange blossom and tangerine throughout. Both are light and dry with a crisp finish and a clear citrus aroma throughout.
Their hoppier beers remain refreshing and retain the citrus aromas. The flagship India Pale Ale is Channel Marker IPA, which is medium bodied and malty with notes of both ripe and unripe pineapple alongside green apple and grapefruit. Slightly less bitter, and a bit more fruit forward is Floridays. It’s brewed with a blend of North Western hops that includes Cascade, Centennial, and Citra, which are known for distinct notes of citrus peel and ripe tropical fruit.
Their most intense IPA so far is Tropically Impaired, a hazy New England IPA made to celebrate the thousandth batch of beer brewed by the company. Mosaic, Crypto Citra, and Galaxy hops bring complex notes of tropical fruit that starts with citrus, continues with apricot, and concludes with ripe mango, papaya, and peach.
Nested Reel takes the hops and citrus in a different direction. This beer is a kettle sour with subtle notes of lime juice and apple cider, but it is also dry hopped so those notes are complimented with lime peel and grapefruit zest aroma.
Key Lime Hibiscus Ale is also dominated by lime flavor and some sourness. It’s dry, slightly tart, and a bit floral, with notes of roselle flowers, lime leaves, and lemongrass. People come to the Florida Keys to eat key lime pie, and drink key lime pie cocktails and beer, so naturally key lime is also a component of their most popular beer, No Wake Zone Coconut Keylime Ale. This one smells like coconut rum with a splash of lime juice, but the taste is a bit more complex with notes of toasted coconut and graham cracker.
Another easy going and fruit forward beer is Bud N’ Mary’s Blueberry Ale. It’s made using berry puree in collaboration with a nearby marina called Bud N’ Mary’s that offers lodging, fishing charters, and cold beer to Islamorada visitors. The blueberries bring some sourness and sweetness, but it contributes a lot to the aroma, so the beer is still relatively light and dry with a strong blueberry smell. Conch Queen Raspberry Ale, and Florida Gal Strawberry Ale are similar, but they use berries that are more tart so the beer has a brighter aroma and a bit more sour.
Several years ago, servers at the brewery realized that the tropical notes of the IPAs, and tart flavors from the fruit ales meant that Islamorada Beer could be used as the base for some incredibly refreshing shandies. Customers would also sometimes ask for tropical cocktails using rum and gin. This developed into a cocktail program, and a decision to start making distilled spirits. Eventually, the company grew to include an additional brewery in Fort Pierce, the Crooked Palm line of canned cocktails, and Islamorada Rum & Gin.
Islamorada has a long association with rum cocktails. The Rum Runner, made with dark rum, and a blend or banana and blackberry liqueurs was first concocted at a bar in Islamorada towards the end of the Tiki cocktail era in 1969. During this time in the late sixties and early seventies, bars in the Florida Keys served tiki drinks like the Zombie and the Mai Tai to tourists seeking a taste of the tropics. Caribbean rum cocktails like the Bushwacker and Painkiller also often first landed on the Florida Keys as their recipes and reputations traveled northwards.
Islamorada Dark Rum works well in any of these cocktails. Batch distilled from molasses and aged in oak for at least six months, there are notes of marshmallow, brown sugar, and cherry syrup against a backdrop of campfire smoke. The aging is done in a lightly charred Bourbon barrel with added American oak spirals and Hungarian oak chips. The oak flavor is strong on the nose, but on each sip it is relatively delicate.
Oak chips also contribute to the vanilla notes in their spiced rum. Additional vanilla beans, cardamom, clove and nutmeg are also used to help round out the flavor. The end result is a straightforward spiced rum that’s stronger and drier than most, so it works better as a cocktail ingredient or alongside a cola. Some of these same aromatics that shine in the spiced rum are also used in the line of gin that the company produces.
While rum is the spirit of the Caribbean, gin also has a long history in the region. Popular rum companies like Angostura and Appleton all made gin at one point, and several Caribbean cocktails like the pink gin and cocoyage use gin instead of rum. Similarly, a whole slew of Tiki cocktails, including the Singapore Sling, the Suffering Bastard, and the Saturn also use gin instead of rum.
Islamorada Original Gin brings together five botanicals for a floral and citrus-forward profile with a sweet finish. It’s a straightforward yet flavorful gin ideal for any cocktail. Islamorada Hibiscus Gin has some of the same botanicals, but it is also flavored and colored with hibiscus and butterfly pea flower. It is deep purple, almost bordering on blue when poured, but it slowly turns lilac when citrus juice is added. This seemingly magical color change creates a lot of opportunities for mixologists, whether in making a cocktail that slowly matches the color of the lilac flower used as a garnish, or whether in splashing a final dash of lemon juice as the last ingredient creating a layered cocktail. Floral undertones, and the unusual hue depending on what kind of juice is used also means that it can enhance the aroma and appearance of cranberry and gin cocktails like the Cosmopolitan, the Sea Breeze or the Cape Codder.
Islamorada Brewery and Distillery is not the most southern rum distillery in the United States, or the most southern craft beer company. What makes them stand out though, is that they’re a one stop shop for drinking in the Florida Keys.
