RockPit Brewing (Instagram | Website), which opened on Valentine’s Day in 2019, will be adding a full liquor bar to the location, and the hook is, they’ll be making all of the booze themselves onsite.
The co-founders, Chris Rock and Sean Burke, shared with Bungalower that with the recent acquisition of an adjacent warehouse, they were able to fit even more equipment into the brewroom, including some new boilers that would let them triple their brewing capacity and add new beers to their production list, including barleywines and varietals with higher ABV counts that are more prone to burning in their older units, as discussed in the below Instagram post by Rock.
The change also allowed for them to purchase equipment to make their own liquor. The duo shared that they’ve already started by making their own moonshine and that they hope to be sharing them in the taproom by mid-May, albeit with a limited menu of house cocktails. Followed by other liquors, including vodka and bourbon as they scale up production and develop their own recipes.
The addition of alcohol to their taproom was made possible by a statute passed in 2021, the 2021 Florida Craft Distilleries Law. Prior to the statute, craft distilleries in the state were limited to selling only packaged products for consumption off premises. Those limitations were eliminated and now craft distilleries can sell their branded products for consumption onsite and at home.
RockPit will also be selling their product to-go and with the added beer brewing capacity, they will also start selling for distribution.
RockPit Brewing is located at at 10 W. Illiana Street [GMap].
The Black Magic Pizza location next door is still in development but has no projected opening date at this time, according to the Rockpit team.
