Three Sons

3 Sons Brewing Co. is a family-owned brewery based in Dania Beach, South Florida, founded by Corey Artanis and his father, Joe. The story began in 2011, when Corey started experimenting with brewing at home, gradually developing a reputation among Florida's increasingly enthusiastic beer crowd. Things accelerated after his beers were invited to Cigar City Brewing's Hunahpu's Day festival, one of the state's most influential craft beer events. 3 Sons won both Best Brewery and Best Beer at the festival in 2015, then repeated the brewery award in 2016 while taking the top two places for individual beers. That early recognition gave the project serious momentum before the family eventually opened the brewery and taproom in Dania Beach.

The brewery's philosophy is essentially to make the beers they actually want to drink, without being too concerned about staying inside traditional style boundaries. That can mean a crisp lager one week, a heavily hopped IPA the next, followed by an imperial stout, sour beer or something considerably more experimental. Their current core range gives a good idea of the breadth: Lite Crispy Bois is a 4.2% American lager, Ocean Park Pils is a dry-hopped pilsner using Saaz and Perle, while Citrus Machine is a Double Dry-Hopped IPA built around Comet, Citra and Mosaic. Alongside those sit beers such as Dopealicious, their hazy New England-style IPA, as well as a constantly changing selection of seasonal and limited releases.

Hoppy beer has become an important part of the 3 Sons identity, particularly the big, aromatic American IPAs that helped put Corey on the map as a homebrewer. Dopealicious, for example, combines Citra and Mosaic in a hazy, soft-textured IPA, while Citrus Machine takes a more aggressively hopped approach. But the brewery's output has never been limited to chasing the latest IPA trend. Its cellar and barrel-aging programme has allowed the brewers to work with imperial stouts and other beers requiring considerably more time and patience, while the wider range has included gose, Berliner-style beers, red ales, pale ales and European-inspired lagers. Earlier in the brewery's development, 3 Sons became particularly well known for experimental beers using flavours and ingredients more commonly associated with cocktails and desserts, demonstrating the homebrewing mentality that still sits underneath the commercial operation.

That willingness to experiment is balanced by a surprisingly strong interest in traditional brewing. Corey has spoken about his enthusiasm for European-style lagers, and the brewery's current lineup includes both pilsner and American lager alongside the more flamboyant beers. Ocean Park Pils, named after the nearby Dania Beach pier, uses Saaz and Perle hops and provides a much more restrained expression of the brewery's brewing ability. More recently, 3 Sons even produced its first traditional cask ale in collaboration with Manchester's Rivington Brewing Co., using the same malt bill, hops, yeast and water profile as the British original and serving it through an English beer engine. It is a good illustration of the brewery's general approach: they might be fascinated by huge American IPAs and extravagant barrel-aged beers, but they're equally happy getting into the details of a properly made lager or cask ale.

Today, 3 Sons operates from its brewery and kitchen on Federal Highway in Dania Beach, where brewing, food and the local beer community are deliberately kept under the same roof. The taproom has around two dozen beers available across the brewery's different styles, with a wood-fired kitchen providing food alongside them. The business remains family-owned, and that family element is more than just part of the name: the brewery grew out of a father's and son's shared project and has retained the idea of brewing as something personal and hands-on. After beginning as a kitchen homebrew project in 2011, 3 Sons has developed into one of South Florida's more adventurous independent breweries, with the freedom to jump from crisp lager to hazy IPA to barrel-aged stout without feeling the need to pick just one lane.