Florida, like Captain America, rocks

I love Florida. I really do.

I’ve battled quicksand and culverts and I’ve spent a big chunk of my first four days here waiting in line, but Florida? You still rock.

Caught Captain America – The Winter Soldier with my son on our second full day here and while the movie was awesome, the pre-flick buzz was even better. I got carded. Yeah, this 54 year-old dude got ID’d asking for a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale at the Cobb Theatre in downtown Orlando.

Thank you Ian. You made my day. And you gave me some fabulous trash talk material to use on my ex-wife, who used to get carded once in a while back in the day and always let me hear about it.

The line-ups that I mentioned earlier? That would be at Universal Studios theme park, where the J Man and I went today. Forty minutes to get into the parking lot; another 30 minutes or so get tickets and anywhere from 10 minutes to nearly an hour to get on the rides.

But I shouldn’t complain. It’s a popular theme park and lineups go with the territory. But all I could think about as the afternoon wore on was getting back to the hotel and going for a swim in the hotel pool, followed by a beer or three.

Totally awesome Total Wines

The beer, which was on ice in my fridge, was the prize from a visit to the Holy Grail for a beer lover in Orlando. It’s called Total Wines, and it’s what the LCBO and The Beer Store back in Ontario should be.

Never mind the aisle after aisle of wines. It’s the two or three full aisles of craft beer available in this place. Nearly every American beer you could think of was there, including IPAs I could only dream of.

My budget is tight, so I only bought $40 or so worth – all IPAs – this time. But I’ll be back before I go. Rest assured.

And speaking of The Beer Store, one of the staffers at Total Wine heard me raving about the selection of craft beers on display. "I guess you don't miss your Molsons and Labatts," he said with a smile, adding that he is an ex-pat Canuck from Ontario and he used to work for the The Beer Store years ago. "Now," he said, waving his arms at the vast selection of wine, beer and spirits on display, "I live in Orlando and work here."

Pretty sure he loves Florida too.

For the record, my shopping list included Cigar City Jai Alai IPA; Founders All Day IPA; Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA; Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA and 90 Minute IIPA; Stone Ruination IPA (8.2 per cent and 100-plus IBU); Ballast Point Sculpin IPA; Mad River Steelhead IIPA; and Long Hammer IPA.

Like I (and Arnold before me) said: I’ll be back.

Beer O'clock (once more)

As of this writing I've got to just three of these amazing beers. As I'm in Florida, I figured I'd try the Jai Alai IPA first. It pours a cloudy orange with a thin head. Very bitter, with a pungent, piney aroma. Quite hoppy with a boozy finish. Very nice beer.

I went to the Racer 5 next, and this bottle conditioned 7.5 per cent California IPA was low on aroma but big on taste. It poured a deep golden colour with grapefruit and mango flavours and a boozy after taste. A damn good beer.

The last tester of the day was the Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point Breweries in San Diego. This seven per cent hop bomb was the best yet. Very hoppy (grapefruit for sure; hard to pick out the other citrus flavours) with a nice bitter finish; this was a gem of a find. Awesome beer!

This holiday is getting better and better.

Cheers!