ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (February 21, 2017) – Cycle Brewing, Inc. owners Doug and Tara Dozark can’t decide if they’re more excited about the earning the title of Best Brewer in Florida from Ratebeer.com or the trip to California they enjoyed. At the end of January, the online beer rating site tallied the 2016 scores from beer drinkers worldwide who post their opinions about new beers they taste. And the winner for 2016 is St. Pete’s very own Cycle Brewing.
Besides being rated the top brewer in the state, Cycle Brewing, Inc. earned the title of Best in the categories of style and new beers for Rare Scooop, a collaboration with 3 Sons Brewing Company out of South Florida and for the Barrel-aged Hazelnut Imperial Stout, one of the signature style of beers that customers line up for outside of Cycle Brewing.
“We currently serve 12 taps downtown and over the course of the year, we make as many as 30-40 new beers that we try out. Our customers are big fans of the barrel-aged beer and we work hard to create something new for them to taste when they come in,” said Doug Dozark. “We appreciate that they have faith in it and want it and that’s how we have built a reputation in St. Petersburg.”
Ratebeer.com is an active forum for beer lovers to come together and share opinions of beers, and beer retailers in a free environment. Since it was established by volunteers in May 2000, RateBeer.com has attracted hundreds of thousands of members from more than 100 countries who have rated different beers around the world. The site is widely recognized as the most in-depth, accurate, and most-visited source for beer information, according to their website.
“Ratebeer invited us to Santa Rosa, California for the festival for 2,000+ people, put us up in a hotel, and bought some of our beer to serve, but they don’t tell you much. There’s no hint that you are going to win something,” said Dozark. “I was quite shocked. I leaned over to my wife Tara, when they were going to announce the top 10 beers in the world. I thought I knew who was going to be number one and then we were number two. I was right about number 1, by the way,” giving a nod to fellow brewer Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead Brewery in Vermont.
“It’s bragging rights more than anything. Unlike a competition in which you choose what you enter. All of our beers are under scrutiny. RateBeer allows people to post tasting notes and descriptions. People get into that. Reviewers can post opinions that are more thoughtful, not just stars or numbers. You have to spend some time when you are doing the rating. If you are a brewery, customers find you and put you on the website. There are 23,000 different brewers out there. People are avid about posting new beers and we appreciate our fans.”
Cycle Brewing, Inc. is located at 534 Central Ave, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. Follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @CycleBrewing.