USA, FL: Tripping Animals Brewing to become Doral’s second brewery this month

Doral is set to welcome its second brewery when Tripping Animals Brewing opens for its first day of business this month, the Miami New Times reported on November 7.

Tripping Animals founders Ignacio Montenegro, Iker Elorriaga, Juan Torres, Francisco Arocha, and head brewer Daniel Chocron first announced their plans to open a brewery in 2016 after securing a 15,000-square-foot industrial space in Doral. Montenegro says the partners will announce the opening date soon, but the tap room could open as early as next week.

Tripping Animals has its roots in Venezuela where Chocron and Torres founded a nano-brewery called Casa Coronarias in 2012. Montenegro went to university in St. Louis, and also worked closely with dozens of craft breweries, later landing a position at O'Fallon Brewery in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The team moved stateside in early 2014 to found Tripping Animals Brewing, the name pays homage to the fauna native to Florida and Latin America, with each animal taking drinkers on a trip to a certain part of the world.

"The idea is to create great craft beer and promote a unique atmosphere, as well as spread the craft beer lifestyle," said Chocron. "In Venezuela, the culture of craft beer just wasn't there. People were trying to innovate, but not much. Here, we're in love with all the styles, from fruited sours and barrel-aged stouts to lagers and IPAs. It's amazing the styles and ingredients we have to experiment with."

The team will brew beer using a 15-barrel system. The building's dedicated 2,400-square-foot taproom will house an arcade, lounge space, and 15-seat bar that will pour Tripping Animals' beer from 20 taps alongside homemade sangria as well as guest beer, wines, and cider.

The brewery also has an onsite kitchen that will serve food made in-house via a partnership with the creators of Miami-based Poke Kai food truck. The menu will feature snack-sized plates, tacos, and steamed bao buns with starters including shoyu tuna poke nachos or yuca fries, while a selection of meats from black mole beef brisket to a spicy chorizo sausage can be ordered as either tacos or steamed buns.

"The menu will offer a nice mix of salty, savory, and delicious items," said Chocron. "It's food that will pair perfectly with our beer."

As for the suds, Tripping Animals describes its brews as very hop-forward. Chocron says he will concentrate heavily on IPAs and stouts as well as easy-drinking styles like lagers and pilsners.

Although the brewery has a number of flagship recipes it has promoted during local festivals, including a Belgian dubbel, Wild Duck, that won second place two years in a row at the 2016 and 2017 U.S. Open Beer Championship. The team says it won't be focusing on brewing any core styles just yet.

Instead, the goal is to brew as many new beers as possible for a rotating selection, said Montenegro. "We eventually want to get to a point where we're offering a few core beers, but for now we'd like to have the freedom to see what does the best for our patrons. We want to offer a little bit of everything."

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