FEATURE
Local craft beer businesses thriving
INDIAN RIVER MAGAZINE
THINGS ARE
A-BREWING
Side Door Brewing Co. bartenders Megan Lyshon and Rob Pearce, who now enjoy sitting on the other side of the bar, once served beers brewed on the
premises by owner Dwayne Buchholz. Side Door, on Southeast Village Green Drive, was the first craft brewery to open its door in Port St. Lucie.
Port St. Lucie Magazine 35
Craft brew pubs arrived tardily
in Port St. Lucie, the first one
in late 2015 when Side Door
Brewing Co. sold its first pint
in a small shopping center shared with
auto repair businesses east of U.S. 1.
Eighteen months later, Hop Life
Brewing Co. opened with perhaps the
best name in the craft beer business in
an otherwise nondescript business park
near the spring training home of the
New York Mets.
Aided by loyal customers and new
on-site kitchens, both of Port St. Lucie’s
brew pubs thrive after enduring the
mandatory shutdowns caused by
outbreaks of COVID-19. Hop Life and
Side Door owners hope there will be no
more shutdowns because of a current
resurgence of the virus and its delta
variant.
Freshly brewed seasonal varieties rotate
on the taps at both breweries, such
as a German-styled Oktoberfest beer,
and other holiday brews.
Side Door owner Dwayne Buchholz
makes all the beer at his place, except
for a single guest tap reserved for other
craft stylings. Owner-operators Jim
Kelly and Rob Tearle still write all the
recipes at Hop Life, but have handed
much of the beer- and cider-making
over to a brewer, Rob Smith, at their
brew house that has silver tanks visible
to tasting room patrons.
SIDE DOOR
At Side Door, sales fell sharply from
before March 2020. While still down >>
BY BERNIE WOODALL