ENTERTAINMENT
45
BERNIE WOODALL
American Icon Brewery opened in October 2017 on the site of the old Vero
Beach Municipal Power Plant built in 1926 to serve a growing city. The
building was named to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
Website: http://orchidislandbrewery.com
Every spot on the Treasure Coast Wine & Ale Trail pays
homage to the local area, from the beverages they produce
to the looks of their pubs and tasting rooms. Orchid Island
Brewery pronounces local fare in their beers with Indian
River fruit, including some grown on the barrier island where
the brewery is located. Some of the brews use small portions
of ocean water.
The water used to make OIB beer comes from the air with
“a glorified humidifier,” says Alden Bing, who owns OIB
with his wife, Valerie.
It is difficult to get good water for brewing without spending
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a lot on distilled water, which has a higher mineral
content than the water in OIB’s machine. Bing says on humid
days, his machine can make 100 gallons of water with a low
two-parts-per-million mineral content. Reverse osmosis creates
water that is 20 ppm mineral content, he says.
“It doesn’t get more local” than getting water from the air,
much of it probably evaporated ocean water, Bing says.
OIB celebrates its “Grove to Glass” project by using local
fruit, including some grown on the barrier island on which
the brewery sits.
Alden was on a trip to craft beer haven Asheville, North
Carolina, in 2002 when he had his first Two Hearted Ale
made by Bell’s, a brewery in Michigan that began in the
1980s. He was hooked on high-quality brews. It was at his
bachelor party that he asked his best man, Alan Dritenbas,
who later co-founded Walking Tree Brewery, to make a Two
Hearted Ale clone.
It proved popular at one of the area’s first craft breweries
and got Bing thinking about opening his own brewery.
Orchid Island makes about 300 barrels (9,300 gallons) a
year, of which about 10 percent is distributed through Brown
Distributing.
Star Ruby is far and away the most popular brew that Orchid
Island makes, accounting for half its production.
AMERICAN ICON BREWERY, 1133 19th Place, Vero
Beach. 772.934.4266. Opened October 2017. Kitchen on site.
Taps: 24, all with products made on site.
Website: https://www.americaniconbrewery.com
American Icon Brewery is on the site of the old Vero Beach
Municipal Power Plant built in 1926. It was the city’s only
power source until 1958, then served as a backup power
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