The brewery that sparked the craft scene in Tallahassee in 2012, Proof Brewing Company, had just finished celebrating their one-year anniversary in their beautiful, massive new facility at 1320 South Monroe when the coronavirus pandemic hit. 

And it hit them hard.

They shut down their popular, always-crowded tasting room, furloughed dozens of employees, scrapped parts of their brewing schedule and moved to online and curbside sales only — a model that Tallahassee craft beer drinkers have supported, but one that's not sustainable longterm for a giant operation like Proof.

But things are looking up for Proof after two, positive back-to-back announcements in the last week.

First was this: The tasting room is officially re-open as of last weekend, thanks to the fact Proof is now technically classified as a restaurant — meaning Proper Brew Pub is also re-open for dine in service. Currently, Proof is only going to be open Fridays (4-10 p.m.) and Saturdays (2-10 p.m.) in the interest of easing back into normalcy as Leon County and much of America continues to battle rising coronavirus numbers. 

Proof owners Byron and Angela Burroughs — along with owners of Deep, Lake Tribe, Ology and Southern Fields — met with Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations Secretary Halsey Beshears two weeks ago in a closed-door meeting at Proof to express concerns about Florida's craft breweries being shut down a second time on June 26, as well as offer ideas on how DBPR could help in the interim. 

Then there was this second piece of good news for Proof: On Tuesday, they announced that they were now offering delivery. And while some may be scratching their heads as to how a brewery — which have long been outlawed from personally delivering their product directly to consumers — was able to work this out, here's how: Because Proof is now operating as a restaurant, they can now deliver like a restaurant. And because the state of Florida permitted restaurants to also sell alcohol to-go during the pandemic as a way to keep revenue coming in, Proof is wisely taking advantage.

team. Truly a win-win." 

All great news, right? Well here's the icing on the cake for Proof fans: This week marks the return of Warpath Double IPA — a beer Proof first brewed in 2014 to commemorate the Florida State football team's 2013 BCS National Championship. The beer was such a hit, they've brewed it every year since and always release it shortly before the start of football season.

Of course, who knows what the college football landscape looks like at this point with several major conferences having already canceled their seasons, so Proof decided to go ahead and release it a few weeks early.

We're so happy to see things headed in a better direction for Proof, and we can't wait to take advantage of getting a case of Warpath dropped off at our doorsteps!

Lake Tribe passes inspection, gets restaurant license

In keeping with the theme of good news for our local breweries, here's some from Lake Tribe: After being closed since June 26 amid the second statewide shutdown of bars and breweries, Lake Tribe is set to reopen this weekend — also as a restaurant. 

Lake Tribe received its 509 Restaurant License on Tuesday and plans to reopen Thursday, Aug. 20. And according to Lake operations manager Tyler Yorski, Lake Tribe will serve hot dogs and Bradley's sausages — but with some serious local flair.

In addition to their planned food offerings — which also will include locally made ice cream floats with their birch beer soda that's brewed on site — Lake Tribe will continue to host food trucks, Yorski said. Lake Tribe's new hours will be Thursday 4-9 p.m., Friday-Saturday 4-10 p.m., and Sunday 1-7 p.m.

We offer a second set of congrats to our friends at Lake Tribe. Best of luck, guys!

Ology going can crazy

With their tasting room remaining closed, Ology recently purchased its own canning line, which gives them free reign to pretty much can anything they brew and get it out to consumers in package. Currently, they have 22 different beers in cans available to purchase — and that is easily a Tallahassee brewery record. (Lake Tribe offered 14 at one point last year).

Well, actually make that 25 — because Ology is dropping two more new ones this week,and re-releasing a crowd favorite.

The first is "Reshi Isles" — a 6% ABV Berliner with pineapple, guava, mango, tangerine and passionfruit, The other new one is "King's Wit" — a 5% ABV Belgian gin-inspired wit with notes of coriander, bitter and sweet orange peel, and juniper berries. And the third is the return of "Resolved Enigma" — a 7% ABC crisp West Coast IPA that Ology describes as "dank, crisp, and crushable." 

Ology Coffee Company is already off and running too. They released their third homemade blend last Friday, and it sold out by the end of the weekend. Another release is planned soon, so to keep up, follow Ology's new brand on Facebook.

Deep gearing up for 4th anniversary

Deep Brewing's 4th Anniversary is coming up the first week of September, and it's appropriately dubbed "Canniversary" once again because of the bevy of beers Deep is releasing in cans. 

Spanning four days — Sept. 4-7 — Deep will roll out four beers in cans, to-go flights of four new beers each day, and four new bottles for a total of 24 releases.

The can list hasn't been finalized, but Deep has already given us a peek by announcing some amazing-sounding new beers. Check it out on Facebook. 

Epic beer run planned to Oyster City

During the coronavirus crisis, we've been steadily reminding folks to support our fringe breweries outside of Tallahassee since regular day trips, general out-of-town travel and vacations have been grounded. To help drum out support, we've started doing what we like to call "Epic Beer Runs" to our area breweries.

The way it works is that anyone is welcome to pre-order some beer from whatever brewery we're "running" to that time, pay for it online, and then WE act as your proxy by having someone bring back all the orders for our Tallahassee fans to enjoy. It saves you the 150-plus-mile round trip and helps support our fringe breweries in the process.

Just that easy! Hope you'll take advantage!

Danny Aller is the co-founder, along with Matthew Crumbaker, of the TLH Beer Society, a group of avid craft beer lovers. Reach the Beer Society on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or email: tlhbeersociety@gmail.com.