Craft Beer Mecca Opens In Fort Lauderdale

Hope your New Year's resolution didn't include "drinking less beer" because a new store dedicated to craft beer and home brewing has just opened its doors.

Craft Beer Cartel, a 2,500-square-foot convenience store located in Fort Lauderdale's Riverside Park at 557 S.W. 12 Ave., is promising to feature South Florida's largest selection of craft beers with more than 1,000 different labels available for sale. The shop is a joint venture from Lisa and Julian Siegel, founders of Riverside Market, and Adam and Jill Fine, owners of Native Brewing Company.

But Craft Cartel doesn't only sell beer. Items like hard-to-find kegs, a 8-line growler fill station, glassware, "beer-mobilia" and a "nano" brewery where Native Brewery tests its new recipes are also on hand.

If you'd rather brew your own beer, Craft Beer Cartel has you covered with supplies for home brewers including kettles, paddles, hops and barley, along with advice from Adam Fine who we're promised will, "always be available to talk shop."

The love for beer can even be seen in the store's decor, which features a bottle cap floor hand assembled by the store's friends, family and those in the beer community over the past three months. It features more than 300,000 bottles caps that have been collected over the last five years.

The store is open daily from 8am until 10pm, even offering grab-and-go pastries and coffee for those early bird beer shoppers.