Business & Tech

Cycle Brewing: Born in Gulfport, Expanding Across Tampa Bay

Freshness is king at Cycle Brewing in Gulfport and, now, downtown St. Pete.

Passion fuels Cycle Brewery, an award-winning local brewery that started it's roots at Peg's Cantina in Gulfport.

The craft brewery has earned praise from beer enthusiasts from across Tampa Bay and the country. After serving great tasting beer in Gulfport for the past year, Brewmaster Doug Dozark opened a second location and official tasting room in downtown St. Pete this summer.

"Cycle Brewing is focused on being St Petersburg's local brewery, we are producing internationally acclaimed beers for this community and with a product where freshness is king the best place to have our beer is in our tasting room," Dozark says.

Cycle Brewing opened at 534 Central Ave S. in St. Pete on August 15. Although they continue to brew at Peg's in Gulfport, they are licensed to brew on Central. 
Dozark says tiny pilot batches are in the works until their brewhouse from local St Pete fabricator, Brew Fab, is ready near the end of this month.

"Cycle is focused on making the finest beers it can and our feeling is that you have to ignore the production and distribution large scale rat race to truly focus on the beer." Doug Dozark says.

"Smaller batches mean fresher beer," Dozark adds.

The current menu includes: 

  • Freewheel Pale Ale 
  • Ryerish Red
  • The Dude Porter
  • Cream and Sugar please (Brewed with locally roasted coffee.)
  • Tang and Biscuits (The official names of the stick and pucks in the Shuffleboard World Championships in St. Pete this fall.)
  • Fixie Session IPA
  • Bottom of the 9th Brown

Dozark says Fixie Session IPA is their biggest seller. "There are different reasons people gravitate towards it," he says.

"The IPA drinker will find all of the hops they want in an IPA, the hops have a citrusy tilt to them which we find allows non-IPA drinkers to enjoy it as well, it is only 4.7% ABV so you can have a couple without getting too tired or drunk and all of those things come together because it is fresh, in an IPA that makes all the difference," he says.

Expect fall flavors to be revealed soon. Cycle Brewing keeps patrons posted about new batches on their Facebook page. Recently, they posted photos of PumQueen, an imperial pumpkin ale brewed by Peg's First Assistant Brewer Kristina Kirk. And while they may be a little late, they will be brewing an Octoberfest for the fall as well.   

Stop by the new location at 534 Central Avenue and meet with Brewmaster Doug Dozark, his wife Tara and Assistant Brewer and Tasting Room Manager Neal Whitney. 

Cycle Brewing is open seven days a week, 3 p.m. Mon - Fri and noon on weekends. Closing times can vary but generally they close at midnight most days and 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. 


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