Join the Celebration this Saturday -- Walking Tree Turns 10
- Vero Minute
- Jul 13
- 2 min read
Ten years ago, this was a warehouse the city wanted to tear down. This Saturday, July 18, Walking Tree Brewery is throwing its biggest party yet.
Mike and Brooke Malone took over 3209 Dodger Road in 2014, a 1945 Naval aviation supply warehouse wedged between Historic Dodgertown and the Piper plant, and spent two years gutting it themselves, volunteers and all, sparing it the fate of demolition. The first pint went out on June 23, 2016.
The 10th Anniversary Block Party starts at noon on the 18th: $5 beers all day, Salvador Deli running specials, Cousins Maine Lobster parked outside, a special release from the cellar, two new sours, new merch, and DJ Jerzi Entertainment on yacht rock duty until close.
In addition to serving award-winning beer, Walking Tree has put real muscle behind lagoon conservation. The brewery adopted the Ocean Research and Conservation Association as a permanent partner, and staff monitor a stretch of the C-54 canal near the Stick Marsh in Fellsmere four times a year for ORCA's Pollution Mapping Citizen Science Project, using the same oxygen readers and refractometers they use on yeast in the brewhouse. Mike has taken his turn in the dunk tank at past block parties to raise money for the cause. The flagship IPA is named for the mangrove estuaries it honors, part of an "IPAs for Waterways" series that also produced the Buttonwood double IPA, named for the mangrove tree that helps hold the lagoon together, and the Gilded Kilroy, named for ORCA's sensors that continuously monitor lagoon health.
The awards have piled up too: Best Beer in Florida and Best Small Brewery at the 2017 Best Florida Beer Championships, a gold for Barnacled Manatee Barleywine, a GABF bronze for Duke Snider's Imperial Stout.
Walking Tree Brewery, 3209 Dodger Rd. 10th Anniversary Block Party, Saturday, July 18, noon.
