Peg’s Cantina and Brew Pub
TRP visited Peg’s Cantina and Brew Pub in April of 2012. Peg’s is located in the sleepy town of Gulfport, FL which is just outside of St. Pete’s. The brewpub started as a small restaurant that focused on pizza and mexican food in 2004. It wasn’t until March 2009 that they started making beer. At first they just made 5 gallon batches on the kitchen’s stove but quickly realized that they would need a more sophisticated system if they were going to serve beer all the time.
In 2009 they had a custom 1 barrel brew tree built that would allow them to keep beers regularly on tap. When we visited they had three of their beers on draft. Maria had the porter and proclaimed it to be one best porters she has had in recent memory while I enjoyed their IPA that had a very earthy bitter taste and was thoroughly delicious.
Due to the production size of Peg’s brew system they use mini barrels (5 gallon Palm Ridge Reserve Whiskey barrels, to be exact) for their barrel aging program and it has produced some great results. The D.O.S. (Dave’s Original Stout) is Peg’s long sought after barrel aged stout that always gets a lot of attention at festivals and on release dates.
Not only do they make really great beer but they also serve other local favorites like Cigar City as well as carrying a large selection of craft beer bottles. The wide selection of brews goes great with their menu that features some very tasty items such as the thin crust pizza’s, the quesadilla’s, and the crab cake is out of this world.
This place had a great atmosphere and everyone that worked there was really into beer. This is a highly recommended stop if you find yourself in the area.
