Ravenous Pig goes big
Expansion of craft beer brewery facility expected to more than double production
A beer garden featuring games such as cornhole and shuffleboard also is planned for the space between the two buildings and could open early next year.
WINTER PARK — One of Orlando’s first craft breweries is about to expand its beermaking operation.
Ravenous Pig currently makes beer in a 750-square-foot space inside the restaurant on Fairbanks Avenue, but brewing is expected to start next month in a 3,000-square-foot building next door that formerly housed an Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
The new facility will include a 15-barrel “brewhouse” system where the ingredients for beer come together and 180 barrels of fermenting space, compared with the existing space’s five-barrel brewhouse system and 40 barrels of fermenting space.
Brewmaster Larry Foor said the existing space produces about 750 31-gallon barrels of beer annually and he hopes to do around 2,000 barrels in the new space during its first year before ramping up production in ensuing years.
A beer garden featuring games such as cornhole and shuffleboard also is planned for the space between the two buildings and could open early next year, said James Petrakis, who owns the business with his wife, Julie.
With the new facility, the beer operation is changing its name from Cask & Larder to Ravenous Pig Brewing Co.
In addition to Ravenous Pig, the brewery will produce beer for The Swine Family’s
other restaurants: Cask & Larder at Orlando International Airport and The Polite Pig at Disney Springs. The goal is for beer brewed at Ravenous Pig to be on tap at other locations across Florida, with about 10 other spots lined up so far to serve the suds once the brewery is ready, Petrakis explained.
“We just can’t keep up with the demand even at our own spots for the beer, without even releasing it into the public,” he said of the current operation.
The original brewing space will remain inside Ravenous Pig and be used for more one-off and seasonal brews. The taproom will also remain in the original location, although special events are envisioned for inside the new brewery.
Petrakis sees the beer garden, which will serve food, as being similar to Crooked Can Brewing Company’s setup at the Plant Street Market in Winter Garden. He also hopes to play kids’ movies in the garden.
“We’re trying to make this more of a Winter Park family-oriented place to hang out,” he said.
He added he views Ravenous Pig’s dining room and the taproom/ beer garden as almost two distinct spaces.
“You can get different experiences,” he said. “You can come in for a great date night over there or you can come in and hang out with your buddies and drink a couple beers over here.”
Brewing at the Fairbanks Avenue location started in 2012 with the opening of Cask & Larder there. Ravenous Pig, which opened in 2007, eventually moved into the space.
“Our focus has always been (that) we’re going to make really good beer to go with our food,” Petrakis said. “We want to be more of a higher-end type of beer and a higher-end type of place.”
Since that 2012 Cask & Larder opening, Petrakis and brewmaster Foor have watched Orlando’s brewery scene grow significantly. There are now more than 50 breweries in the Central Florida area.
“(Orlando was) a little slower on the craft beer thing, especially when you compare it to Asheville, Portland, San Diego, Colorado in general,” Foor said. “We’ve caught up very fast … The literal thirst for the craft beer was always there; people just didn’t have breweries to go to.” Contact the reporter at afuller@orlandosentinel .com or 407-420-5664; Twitter @afullerreporter