Angry Chair Brewing Review
Today I am spotlighting the Tampa Bay Brewery, Angry Chair Brewing. If you have not heard of it, then you are probably thinking how strange the name is, just like I was! However, after tasting their beer, I could care less what the name of the brewery is. In an area full of awesome breweries, this little one has still managed to stand out!
The Atmosphere at Angry Chair Brewing
The brewery has been open since 2014 and has a small, industrial style tap room. The chairs aren’t particularly angry looking, although they are mostly bar stools with no back, which isn’t the most comfortable. They have a couple of tvs, and you can bring your dog, but they are definitely sticking to the no frills route. Which is fine by me if that’s how they focus on making such awesome beer!
Their website is also pretty humorous and littered with sarcasm. They are not trying to be another trendy brewery and firmly state this by saying they don’t have trivia, yoga, or giant jenga. It’s funny that those three things used to distinguish a brewery, but now the lack of is actually more unique. One other things to note is that there is very little parking. We actually got pretty lucky when we went and one of the four spots in the lot were available. They are aware and have a detailed map online showing where you should and shouldn’t park nearby.
Angry Chair is apparently known for their stouts, but everything I tried here stood out tremendously. They do not offer flights, but do offer five ounce pours. This brewery only fills thirty-two ounce crowlers and some of them come at a hefty price tag. We debated getting a crowler of Blue Puffs, but $19 seemed excessive for two pints of beer. They do sell 750 ml bottles of special releases as well.
The Sour Beers at Angry Chair Brewing
We ended up getting lots of five ounce tasters here because we wanted to try it all! It was some of the most unique and delicious beer I have had. The Blue Puffs was hands down the favorite, and possibly my favorite Berliner ever. It was a 5% ABV Berliner Weiss that tasted like marshmallows and blueberries. It was the perfect mix of sweet and sour and seriously refreshing too! I could drink this beer every day and I don’t think I would tire of it! It even is this pretty bright pink color. If you ever get the chance, try this beer!
We tried two other delicious sour beers here. First was the Tiger Mama, described as a tiki style Berliner. Of course we had to get it if it’s tiki style! The fruit notes are dragonfruit, pineapple and coconut which gave it an extremely tropical taste. All of us loved this one too and it was reminiscent of some candy that none of us could put our finger on. This was another great sweet and sour beer and a good introduction for people who aren’t keen on sours.
I also got the Three Little Birds which is a sour wheat beer. I love fruity wheat beers so I definitely wanted to try this one. This brew had flavors of guava and other fruits and was quite tasty. It was definitely more of a sour than a wheat with its tart flavor, but I enjoyed it very much.
The Stouts at Angry Chair Brewing
I only got around to trying one stout unfortunately, but it was an amazing one! I tend to find stouts very filling and hard to drink after I’ve already had a couple of beers. We had just been to Cigar City before this so I was mainly sticking with 5 oz low ABV beers. The stout I had was the Rocky Road, an 8% imperial milk stout. This was super chocolately and marshmellowy and very decadent! Angry Chair has really figured out how to add a delicious sweetness with that marshmallow flavor they have going. It was super thick and there was a lactose flavor, but I think everyone could enjoy a 5 oz glass of this! After that, it might get a little too strong. This was one of the best milk stouts I have had in a while though.
The most popular stouts Angry Chair offers are the German Chocolate Cupcake Stout and The Awakening. Both are very sweet and milky stouts, with the former having tastes of coconut and vanilla, and the latter having a coffee flavor. They have also made an an imperial and a barrel aged imperial version of the German Chocolate Cupcake, that are extremely popular. I really want to try that one next time!
The IPA’s at Angry Chair Brewing
They only had a few IPA’s on tap which I like to see. Some breweries have really gone IPA crazy and that’s the majority of their beers. I think Angry Chair had a good balance of styles, with a slight lean towards more sour beers. I think sours are the next IPA, as I am starting to see them more, but I can’t complain about that! We did have a taster of the Space Grass IPA which we had at Oak and Stone the previous day. This is just such a perfect IPA in my book. I love the variety of hops it uses and it just has such a robust taste.
We spent a little over an hour at Angry Chair and had a fun time tasting these unique brews. I prefer breweries with outside seating, so this isn’t one that I would plan to hang out for a while at. They are doing some really creative things and making delicious beer and that’s really all that matters! I feel like I’m going to want to visit this brewery every time I’m in town now to see what new beers they have come up with! This is a problem for me though since there are so many more I have to try in the Tampa area!
I know my list of breweries I want to try is adding up, how about yours? This article covers the last of the five breweries we visited during our St. Pete trip, so now I’ll be moving on to some local ones I have wanted to review!