Saturday, August 9, 2014

Baseball and Beer in Tampa Bay



Kevin Schaul, Kelyn Soong and Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post wrote a very interesting article yesterday looking at beer offerings at every Major League stadium. According to the writers, Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners, is the best stadium for beer in Major League Baseball. Safeco is number 1 in three of their four categories: overall, locality, and uniqueness. Safeco Field is 3rd in the fourth category: quality.

That Safeco is the best beer-offering stadium in baseball shouldn't come as a surprise. Seattle is the fourth best beer city in America according to Travel and Leisure.com and is recognized as an established great beer city by The Pour Fool.com.

What about Tropicana Field, located in the region named "America's Top Emerging Beer Town" by The Pour Fool?

(Note: The Pour Fool and Beer Advocate.com include the entire Tampa Bay area in "Tampa".)

According to the Washington Post article, the Rays rank 24th overall in beer offering.
  • Overall: 24th
  • Locality: 21st
  • Quality: 26th
  • Uniqueness: 15th
The article then listed the "top beers" offered at the Trop and their ranking based on BeerAdvocate.com.
  • Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Boston Beer Company, Massachusetts: 85 (Very good)
  • Fat Tire Amber Ale, New Belgium Brewing, Colorado: 81 (Good)
  • Blue Moon Belgian White, Coors Brewing Company, Colorado: 78 (Okay)
  • Batch 19, Coors Brewing Company, Colorado: 77 (Okay)
  • Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Wisconsin: 72 (Okay)
Not one beer from the Tampa Bay area? That can't be right.

After reading the article, I reached out to Jordan Rump, who tends bar at The Porch at Tropicana Field and is a friend of the blog. Jordan quickly pointed out that Cigar City Jai Alai wasn't listed, nor were the other local beers offered at The Porch bar. That led me to research The Porch beers and update the Washington Post list.

Updated Tropicana Field offerings list:

This update should bump Tropicana Field up slightly in the "quality" category. In addition, The Porch selection will also help in "uniqueness", although the Trop would still be far behind the average amount of beer offerings. According to the Washington Post,
Both the Chicago Cubs and the Tampa Bay Rays, for example, offer fewer than 25 different beers. The average Major League team this season is offering 50 different beers from nearly 25 breweries.
There is no doubt Tropicana Field should continue to capitalize on the growing beer phenomenon in the Tampa Bay area. The stadium made great strides this year with The Porch offerings (albeit at $11 a beer!), but there is much room for improvement. Especially with 20 local breweries in the Tampa Bay area and more on the way.

As for the Tampa Bay Minor League teams, there is no ranking of Minor League park beer offerings (yet). However, on June 6th of this year, the Dunedin Blue Jays hosted a Beer, Bacon, and Fireworks Night that drew 1,564 fans, their 6th largest crowd of the season to date.

Although a one-night promotion, Beer, Bacon, and Fireworks Night featured beer from the following breweries:
  • Bluepoint Brewing Company
  • Dunedin House of Beer
  • Dunedin Brewery
  • Florida Avenue Brewing Company
  • Pair of Dice Brewing Company
  • Sea Dog Brewing Company
  • Sweetwater Brewing Company
  • Tampa Bay Brewing Company
  • Widmer Brothers
  • Big Storm Brewing Company
  • Woodchuck Hard Cider

Based on the success of the Dunedin promotion and the local samplings at The Porch, every team in the Tampa Bay baseball market should absolutely capitalize on the explosion of local breweries to create a better beer and baseball experience.