Sour Sippin' Through Orlando, FL

A four-stop tour for sours in the Orlando - and believe it or not, peanut butter and jelly showed up. Twice.

When most people plan a trip to Orlando, they're thinking Micky Mouse and Space Mountain. Me? I'm thinking tap lists and craft breweries. Theme parks are great and all, but I'll always make time to track down the local brewery scene, and Orlando was no different.

What I didn't expect was the theme of this trip to be peanut butter and jelly. Two of my three stops were pouring a PB&J-style sour made with concord grape, which is either a strange coincidence or a sign the Central Florida sour crowd has been picking out of the same lunchbox. Either way, I'm here for it. Here's how my three stops turned out, from my new favorite to a quick one I'd skip.

Stop 1: Half Barrel Beer Project

Where: Orlando, FL Website: halfbarrelproject.com • Social: facebook.com/hbbproject Dog-friendly: Yes, if you're one of the lucky ones, be sure to say hi to Lola

This was the highlight of the trip, and it's not even close. When you walk into Half Barrel you can tell the people there really care. The staff and the owners were authentically friendly - a place that makes you want to settle in for a second round, and maybe even a third. Their beautiful senior dog, Lola, was there too, which is an automatic win in my book.

But the detail that sold me? They've built out a whole section of the brewery to look like a 1980s living room. Wood paneling, VCR, the works. It's the kind of unexpected touch that turns a brewery from "a place to drink beer" into "a place I want to go and hang out."

What's On Tap?

Jamming Like It's 1988 - Fruited Sour 4.2% ABV

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's a PB&J sour made with 42 pounds of strawberry puree and concord grape, and it tasted perfect- fruit-forward, a hint of peanut butter, and exactly the unique kind of sour I am looking for. On Untappd they've got a ranking of 4.25 out of 5, and after one sip I knew why. This was easily my favorite drink of the trip.

They did have another sour on tap, but since it wasn't brewed at Urban Barrel, I stuck with the original.

One important heads-up: this beer does contain peanuts. If you're allergic, steer clear - but if you don't, it's a must-try.

Drink Score: 4.5/5

Food Finds

I ordered the buffalo chicken dip off the menu and loved it. Creamy, a little heat, perfect for splitting while you work through the tap list - exactly what you want alongside a fruited sour.

Food Score: 4/5

The Vibe Inside & Out

Friendly owners, a brewery dog, and a literal 1980s living room. This is what I mean when I talk about personality - Half Barrel has it in spades. It's warm, it's a little quirky, and it feels like a spot the regulars are proud of.

Vibe Score: 5/5

Final Score: 4.5/5 - if you only have time for one stop, make it this one.

Stop 2: Windermere Brewing Co.

Where: Windermere, FL (the outskirts of Orlando) - 111 W 5th Ave Web: windermerebrewing.com 

A short 25 minute drive from where I was staying in Orlando, Windermere Brewing highlights its "born from the lakes" identity - cute pelican logo and all. Their backstory story is one I love: a group of friends sharing homebrews (including a few odd experiments - they mention putting garlic in a beer at one point) decided to take their shared passion to a bigger scale, tried the festival rounds to sharpen their recipes, and built a brewery and taproom right in the heart of Windermere. It's a 7-barrel location, small-batch and quality-focused, and you can actually feel their passion and their intention.

What's On Tap?

Chart Your Course - Berliner Weisse 4% ABV • 4 IBU

This was such a fun way to drink a sour, and exactly the kind of creative twist that keeps me looking for new breweries. Chart Your Course is a perfectly tart Berliner Weisse served as a sour base and then fruited to order right behind the bar - this method is a nod to the old Berlin tradition of drinking Berliner Weisse mit Schuss, with a shot of syrup added to suit each individual drinker. In other words: you get to choose your own flavor or make your own flavor combo. I went with blackberry and watermelon and loved it; they also had blueberry and raspberry on hand. Light, refreshing, superbly customizable, and a fun way to let one base beer please a whole bunch of different palates. Lucky for me they're even in the PubPass for BOGO, so I was more than happy to order another.

Drink Score: 4/5

The Vibe Inside & Out

Windermere has a nice laid-back lakehouse feel both inside and out - though when it's 101 outside, inside is the way to go. Inside blends the modern industrial structure with rustic, comfortable touches - bar seating, spread-out lounge areas, and a killer backyard green that I imagine is amazing to post up in mid-January.

It's clearly built to be a community gathering space: they have live music, trivia nights, beer release events, and rotating food trucks, and the whole place has an easygoing "live life to the fullest" energy the everyone seem to soak up. Being from Minnesota, I'm a little spoiled when it comes to authentic lake culture, so while the lakehouse vibe here doesn't quite rival the real thing in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, it does nail the feeling for Central Florida. I love discovering a spot like this tucked just minutes from Orlando's tourist center - it feels like a little escape from all the theme park and people-y chaos. The kind of place you'd want to be a regular at if you lived nearby.

Vibe Score: 4.5/5

Windermere Final Score: 4/5 - a polished, small-town feel brewery and a sour you get to customize. Well worth the short drive out of the city.

Stop 3: Celebration Brewing

Where: Orlando, FL Web: celebrationbrewing.com

This was a quick one, and I'll be honest with you - it didn't do much for me.

What's On Tap?

Diagonal Cut - Imperial Fruited Sour Ale with Peanut Butter & Concord Grapes 8% ABV

Here's our second PB&J sour of the trip. On paper I had high hopes, but here's the catch that took some of the shine off - made the sour that I liked was actually made at a brewery in North Carolina, not in-house. When I'm looking for a local brewery, part of the fun is trying something they created and brewed on-site, so finding out the sour was brewed a few states away was a bit of a letdown.

Drink Score: 2.5/5

The Vibe Inside & Out

This one was much more bar-and-grill than brewery for me. Nothing wrong with that if it's what you're looking for, but it was missing the personality I love when I'm visiting breweries around the country - the kind Half Barrel had in buckets just miles away. It felt like a place you'd end up at, not a place you'd be seeking.

Vibe Score: 2/5

Celebration Final Score: 2/5 - fine for a quick drink, but not one I'd go out of my way for.

Stop 4: New Smyrna Brewing

Where: New Smyrna Beach, FL (east of Orlando, but a beach town worth the drive) Web: newsmyrnabeachbrewery.com

This one won me over with its small-town charm.

New Smyrna Brewing is small and intimate, and you can immediately tell that it's a locals' place. Everyone bellied up to the bar clearly knew each other - the kind of "Cheers-like", familiar energy you only get when a bunch of regulars treats a brewery as their own living room. There's something cool about walking into a place like that as an out-of-towner and getting a glimpse of a real local hangout.

Tapped In Takeaways

• Best Overall Stop: Half Barrel Beer Project - friendly owners, a brewery dog named Lola, an old-school 1980s living room, and a PB&J sour I'd order again in a heartbeat. This is everything I want in a brewery.

• Most Creative Pour: Windermere's Chart Your Course - fruited to order right at the bar, so you build your own flavor.

• Best Hidden Gem: New Smyrna Brewing - a tight-knit, everybody-knows-everybody feel you can't make up.

  
  

Orlando proved that there's a nice craft scene tucked away beyond the theme parks - you just have to know where to direct the rental car. And if two breweries can decide that peanut butter belongs in a sour, who am I to argue?

Until the next one - cheers!