Boca Raton's Barrel of Monks Brewing To Open in February

It's been a long time coming, but plans to open South Florida's only Belgian-style brewery are currently underway in Boca Raton.

Barrel of Monks co-founder Keith DeLoach announced this week he hopes to celebrate a grand opening in early 2015 along with partners Bill McFee and Matt Saady. Construction is on at their Boca Raton-based facility, where the trio will be producing some authentic, Old World-style ales using the finest in modern brewing equipment.

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We first heard about Barrel of Monks during the November 2013 Inaugural South Florida Brewers Guild Festival in Boynton Beach, when DeLoach and his partners first came on the scene. Since that time, the Boca Raton residents have been busy perfecting recipes with brewmaster Kevin Abbott, and sourcing state-of-the-art equipment for a full, commercial production-ready brewery.

Buildout for Barrel of Monks began in August, what is a roaming two-story, 10,000-square-foot facility that includes a tap tasting room, lounge area, meeting space, and a barrel-aging and bottling room.

The brewery is equipped with a state-of-the-art, 20-barrel Newlands brewing system, and plans are underway to begin immediate commercial production bottling (750ml only) for several of its beers, says to DeLoach. That includes the Barrel of Monks White Wizard witbier; Three Fates Belgian tripel; and Abbey Turno Belgian double.

The tasting room will have a total of 12 taps featuring a rotating selection of the brewery's seasonal and specialty releases, like their take on an IPA, saison, and even an imperial porter Parade of Souls (each brewed with Belgian yeast for a unique taste profile).

While Barrel of Monks is not the first brewer to take up residence in Boca Raton (although it is the city's first production brewery), it does lay claim to a few other firsts: it will be South Florida's -- and possibly the entire state's -- only fully-dedicated Belgian-style brewery. It will also have its own lab, added DeLoach, where strains of yeast will be cultivated to ensure consistency and quality control of the product.

"Our goal with all of this is to set the trend of producing some very high-quality, amazing beer," said DeLoach. "It's been a lot of hard work, and we think people are going to be able to really taste the difference."

Barrel of Monks is located at 1141 S Rogers Circle in the Penn Florida Commerce Center in Boca Raton. Visit barrelofmonks.com.

Nicole Danna is a food blogger covering Broward and Palm Beach counties. To get the latest in food and drink news in South Florida, follow her @SoFloNicole or find her latest food pics on Clean Plate's Instagram.