Florida is well known on the internet for “Florida Man”. Sometimes, the place gets a bad rap for that. While the inland areas may have some questionable residents, I’d argue the coasts are some of the best places around for a relaxing getaway. The past week, I vacationed in Siesta Key with my girlfriend’s family. Now, I consider myself the leading expert of Sanibel Island and I have been to Orlando and all over the Palm Beach area as well as Panama City Beach (PCB13!) but this was my first time to the Sarasota area.

Most of my time was spent crushing Corona Lights on the beach, but I did try a couple breweries out and had a few beers at various restaurants.

On Wednesday, as the slices of bread on either side of my dinner at Brick (fantastic BBQ by the way) we visited JDub’s Brewing Company and Calusa Brewing. Calusa leaned towards having a lot of high alcohol content IPAs, but it definitely had some solid beers on their list and the tap room was pretty busy. The best beer of the trip though was at JDub’s. Brad Popped His Berry was so good. This Blueberry sour was jammed full of flavor. Loved this beer like seagulls loves bread crumbs.

For a beach town, the beer overall was pretty good. But of course you have to have a daiquiri or two (or three). Which I did. However, it’s back to work this week. Monday after a vacation is definitely a level of hell. Just imagine if you had to relive that type of Monday for eternity. How far off is retirement?