Patrons enjoy the new atmosphere at the Friday, Feb. 8th grand opening of Proof Brewery Co. located on 1320 Monroe Street.
Photo Submitted by Amari Godwin.
Proof Brewing Co. spent approximately $6 million to open its new brewery on the south side of town, right in Florida A&M University’s backyard. The new facility is located at 1320 S. Monroe St.
Proof Brewing Co. previously was located on West Tennessee Street, where the company first started brewing in 2012. Renovations for the new facility took place in March of 2018 and turned what used to be the home of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company into what’s now Tallahassee’s first and largest brewery.
Bryan Smith, the sales and events director at Proof Brewing Co. thinks the beer garden will give customers a backyard barbeque feeling.
“It’s Tallahassee’s best backyard,” Smith said. “So when you envision wanting to have a barbeque over your house, this is what you envision and everything that you would want. You got awesome grass, awesome atmosphere, plenty of seats, good food, good beer and good times.”
Owners Byron and Angela Burroughs have big plans for the new location of their brewery.
The 34,000 square-foot building has more to offer and more space than its previous location. The facility now has a larger tasting room, a beer garden, private event room, live music, full kitchen, and a gift shop. The upgrades also include a control lab and a larger brewery space that allows the company to increase production to 30,000 barrels, with more room to grow.
The new location features more new additions to the brewery including a premiere, stainless 20-barrel system brewhouse where they make and produce all of their beer. Depending on the size of the beer being brewed, the estimated time to make it can be anywhere from a 12-16 hour brew cycle.
“If you were to drink a pint a day of the 40 barrel keg, you’d be here for the next 27 years,” Smith said.
The process of making their famous beer starts with gathering grain, mashing it and blending it with hot water. In this process, sugars are extracted, the grain is transferred to fementers and yeast is added.
The brewery’s new, larger tasting room includes a host of lounge chairs, long tables and Foosball tables, for the customer’s enjoyment.
Proof Beer Co. is a family oriented and pet-friendly establishment that has a separate area for kids to play while their parents relax.
Ember Hendrix loves that the new location is more spacious and comes with more than just an open bar.
“I love that its family friendly, I brought my two kids with me,” Hendrix said. “The old location felt smaller, and more confined. This is bigger and it has more activities and more room.”
The new beer garden has a designated area for live music with picnic style benches, and chairs for customers to lounge in and have fun while enjoying Proof’s famous craft beers.
The private event room is a spacious, quiet area perfect for different sorts of parties and meetings, with an exclusive view of the beer garden. Proof offers food catering on-site for those interested in using the event space.
In addition to beer, the brewery offers wings, burgers, fries, and a new cocktail menu for those interested in something different.
Lashay Jerelds, a psychology major at FAMU enjoyed the atmosphere at the grand opening on Friday, Feb. 8.
“I really love the fact that they have more drinks then just beer,” Jerelds said. “I’m really not a huge fan of beer but I definitely enjoyed their cocktails and their wings are really good.”
Their popular craft beers include EightFive-O, Mango Wit, La La Land IPA, Lager, Creatures In The Dark Stout, and Ghost Totem Porter.
For the grand opening weekend, Proof Brewing Co. offered tours up until Sunday at 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m.