Florida Beer Company Christens Cape Canaveral Facility
By Space Coast Daily // June 26, 2014
ABOVE VIDEO: At the christening of Florida Beer Company’s new brewery, CEO Jim Massoni gives a tour to State Senators Thad Altman and Jack Latvala .
ABOVE VIDEO: Scenes from the Christening of Florida Beer Company’s new brewery in Cape Canaveral.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — The Florida Beer Company is now relocated to historic Cape Canaveral, just minutes from the cruise terminals of Port Canaveral.
Florida Beer Company’s state-of-the-art 60,000-square-foot brewery on Imperial Blvd is making history in a building with a proud past.
The building is the former home to the Chrysler missile operations building which provided support services to, most notably, the Apollo and Mercury missions.
FBC’s new brewery features the most efficient brewing equipment and technologies openly on display for visitors to the tasting room to see.
In the heart of the visitor center, bartenders serve a variety of FBC’s offerings. The visitor’s center’s accommodations include modern flat screen TV’s, a central bar tap and a gift shop.
From milling and mashing to bottling and boxing, watch as 28 varieties of Ales, Lagers, Pilsners, Porters, Stouts and Ciders are brewed in the adjacent room, and all of the activity in the brewery is visible through the glass wall that extends along the rear wall between the center and the brewery.
Founded in 1996 as Indian River Brewing Company; reorganized in August 2003 under Indian River Beverage Corporation with Jim Massoni as president/CEO; in 2005 doing business as Florida Beer Company.
In 2013, 35,680 barrels were produced. FBC installed a new state-of-the-art system, called CombiCube B which was developed at the Krones’ Steinecker facility in Freising, Germany.
Krones is the original and leading manufacturer of lines for filling beverages in plastic and glass bottles or beverage cans.
“Our goal is to expand our business, taking care of our home state of Florida first and foremost,” said Jim Massoni, president and CEO of Florida Beer Company.
“We’re now moving up the eastern seaboard for product distribution. We’re already in Washington DC and the surrounding areas, so it makes sense to expand our capacity and build upon our brands. We have the facility and equipment to do it, so now’s the time…in order to expand our brewing operation, we needed to become more efficient with the product output while maintaining the high quality standards of the product. Since utilizing the system, we’ve increased our capacity tenfold.”
TIMELINE OF FBC UPGRADE:
October 2012: Melbourne brewery and tasting room closed; move brewery operations to Cape Canaveral.- July 2013: Entire packaging operation moves from Melbourne to Cape Canaveral.
- May 5, 2014: Cape Canaveral tasting room opened.
- June 25, 2014: Official brewery and tasting room grand opening commences with the christening of the building.
