The microbrew restaurant, which moved to its spot at Centro Ybor in November 2006 after 10 years at nearby 1812 N 15th St., is evaluating locations in St. Petersburg, north Tampa/Lutz, Brandon, Sarasota and Wesley Chapel, said David Doble, who owns the brewery with his mother, Vicki Doble.
"We have always wanted to make it in the game through volume sales, not (increased) profit sales," said David Doble, 31, who is also a pilot. "We have to expand to make the model work."
Two shopping centers have approached Tampa Bay Brewing about opening pubs in their plazas, but Doble declined to identify the sites. He estimated it would cost $1-million to $1.2-million to open a single microbrew pub.
The Dobles' microbrew pub license prohibits the owners from selling their nine house beers off the premises, which is why beer fans can't find Tampa Bay Brewing Co. ales or porters in retail stores. So if the microbrewery is going to sell more of its craft beers outside of its Ybor City pub, the only way is to open more brew restaurants. The beer would be brewed on-site at each new pub.
Tampa Bay Brewing produced 801 barrels of beer from October 2006 to October 2007, up from an annual average of about 600 barrels, David Doble said.
By charting an expansion, the Dobles are bucking a national trend. Microbrew groups declined slightly nationwide from 2006 to 2007, dropping from 67 in '06 to 65 in '07, said Paul Gatza, director of the 1,100-member Brewers Association, the craft brew trade association.
The number of brewpubs associated with brewery groups also dropped in 2007, falling to 318 last year from 330 in 2006, Gatza said.