Anarchy Ale Works Brings 22-Tap Craft Brewery to Renovated Alva Building

A vacant convenience store that 23,000 drivers passed daily without a second glance on Palm Beach Boulevard in Alva is now a 22-tap craft brewery, and by most accounts it hasn't slowed down since it opened.

Anarchy Ale Works, built out over roughly three years by Fort Myers couple John and Tara Ford, sits at 21450 Palm Beach Blvd., about 18 miles east of downtown Fort Myers on Route 80. The taproom pours mostly house-brewed craft beers across its 22 taps, supplements the lineup with a self-serve wine dispenser, and plants a food truck or two out front for hungry visitors. A pet-friendly patio rounds out the space.

Tara Ford was not immediately sold on the project. "It was an old, rundown convenience store," she said. "It was vacant for years." Her hesitation didn't stop there. "I couldn't see the vision," she said. "It took a while. It took a lot of redesigning and visuals. It was scary."

What changed her mind was the foot traffic before a single pint was poured. "Three years ago, when we were building it out, I was very hesitant about what the turnout would be," she said. "But then 20 people a day would stop in to see what was happening. That's when we knew it was going to be good."

John Ford had been chasing this for a long time. He's been homebrewing for nearly 30 years, and the transition from garage batches to a full commercial taproom is the kind of arc every serious homebrewer privately imagines. The finished space doesn't look like a converted convenience store anymore: the interior is modern, the exterior is anchored by a water tower out back, and the food trucks out front serve as a beacon on an otherwise easy-to-miss stretch of Route 80.

Anarchy Ale Works is open Wednesday and Thursday from 2 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Reach them at (239) 445-2245, anarchyaleworks.com, or find the brewery on Facebook.