Brass Tap Banks on Rising Popularity of Craft Brews

The Brass Tap gets its share of what General Manager Stephanie Coffie calls “beer geeks.”

Not a knock to the clientele, the term describes those who appreciate the nuances and techniques used to create various craft beers and imports. They view beer the same way wine enthusiasts view wine.

The Brass Tap, which opened in October in the restaurant courtyard at the Westfield Brandon shopping mall, certainly is not short on selection. Imbibers can choose from 60 brews on tap, none of which are big-name domestic selections. There is a good deal more selection available in bottles, too.

Sure, you can find ordinary selections like Bud Light in a bottle, but people often come here for something less common. Like Dunedin Brewery’s apricot beer, Left Hand Milk Stout or Southern Tier Jah-Va, which is made with coffee.

“The concept is we are going for an upscale beer bar,” said Coffie, adding the Brass Tap also has cigars, about 20 different types of wine and live music several nights a week.

The Brandon bar is The Brass Tap’s second location. The other is in Wesley Chapel at The Shops at Wiregrass. Coffie began at the Wesley Chapel site when it opened about three years ago. The University of South Florida graduate is a lover of craft beers herself.

“It’s more of an experience drinking different types of beers rather than just drinking to get drunk,” she said. “It’s very complex learning about these beers.”

Coffie said employees attend sessions to learn about the product they are selling so they can help customers navigate their way through the extensive bill of fare. Further descriptions on the menu clue clients in to things like taste, aroma and country of origin.

If one didn’t know better, the descriptions would seem suitable for things to be eaten rather than sipped. For example, under Grimbergen Dubbel, a brew from Belgium, it states this ale has “a chocolaty, toffee taste with a warming brandy-like finish.”

Coffie said more and more people are demanding brews that offer a little more personality and taste than big-name brands. She said microbrews were rather common in the United States until Prohibition came along.

According to the Brewers Association, home brewing gave birth to the craft brewing industry starting in the 1970s.

“By the end of the decade the beer industry had consolidated to only 44 brewing companies,” the association writes on its website. “Industry experts predicted that soon there would only be 5 brewing companies in the United States. At the same time as the American brewing landscape was shrinking in taste and size a grassroots homebrewing culture emerged. The homebrewing hobby began to thrive because the only way a person in the United States could experience the beer traditions and styles of other countries was to make the beer themselves.”

 The number of craft brewers in the U.S. has grown from 8 in 1980 to more than 1600 in 2010, according to the association.

Starting next month The Brass Tap, customers who reach certain milestones in number of beers tried can receive certain perks, including gift cards, shirts and even a private party. Coffie knows firsthand what her employees are selling.

“I’ve tasted all of them,” she said. “It’s taken a long time.”