Fort Myers Brewing is honoring the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ian with its Sips of Support fundraiser on Thursday, Sept. 28 from 2 to 10 p.m.
A portion of sales from every drink purchased will benefit the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association’s (FRLA) Disaster Relief Fund, which helps restaurants and lodging establishments to recover, repair and re-open. It also supports employees who are distressed or need financial support after Hurricane Ian. More than $280,000 in relief funds have already been distributed across Southwest Florida by the FRLA over the last year.
“Even though a year has passed since Ian, there is still so much support needed for the local business community as businesses continue to reopen their doors, get back to full capacity and recover financially. While navigating impacts in our own business to overcome significant loss in distribution, we continue to empathize with everyone in the Southwest Florida hospitality industry who has faced such greater devastation or total loss,” said Jen Whyte, founder and owner of Fort Myers Brewing. “Southwest Florida needs a beer, and we want to encourage our community to come together and lend a helping hand to support the many restaurants, travel destinations and people who make our region a special place to call home.”
The Sips of Support fundraiser event, which falls on National Drink Beer Day, will feature local eats from several food trucks including Farmers Corn, Mobstah Lobstah, Smokin’ Crow’s BBQ and Vesuvius Wood Fired Pizza. There will also be live music from Soapy Tuna at 7 p.m.
This fundraiser is another way that Fort Myers Brewing is giving back to the community after the storm. Just three days after Hurricane Ian, Rob Whyte, the owner of Fort Myers Brewing, turned the brewery’s food truck into a mobile laundromat and spent months on the road doing laundry for people in the hardest-hit communities. The brewery also held a musician benefit and collected donations for local musicians who suffered significant or total loss and launched its Beer-It-Forward program to provide more than 200 beers to local emergency and relief workers who were helping the region recover after the storm.
The fundraiser will take place at Fort Myers Brewing Company, 12811 Commerce Lakes Drive, Suite 28, in Fort Myers. For more information, visit Facebook.com/FMBrew or call 239-313-6576.
About Fort Myers Brewing Company
Established in 2013, Fort Myers Brewing Company was the first microbrewery to open in Lee County and continues to lead Southwest Florida’s surging craft beer movement. Founded by Rob and Jen Whyte, Fort Myers Brewing carries a signature line of flagship beers in addition to seasonal brews and small-batch specialties. Its ales, pilsners, stouts, IPAs and hard seltzers are winners of multiple prestigious awards, including a gold at the 2022 World Beer Cup, golds at the Best Florida Beer Competition and Great American Beer Festival, and Grand National Champion at the 2021 and 2022 U.S. Open Hard Seltzer Championships. Fort Myers Brewing was named “Best Large Brewery in Florida” in 2016 and received the Business Resiliency and Innovation of the Year Award at the Lee County Economic Development Office, Horizon Council and Horizon Foundation’s 2021 Industry Appreciation Awards. Its beers are poured at 1,600 locations, including bars, restaurants and retail outlets, including grocery, package and convenience stores. The brewery is located at 12811 Commerce Lakes Drive, Suite 28, in Fort Myers. For more information, visit FMBrew.com or call 239-313-6576.
