St. Augustine Craft Brewers’ Festival returns to Fountain of Youth Park May 2

St. Augustine’s 7th Annual Craft Brewers’ Festival returned to Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park on May 2, packing a 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. tasting window with more than 20 craft breweries, food and live music. Visit St. Augustine’s listing pushed the count higher, saying more than 25 regional and local breweries took part, including Dog Rose Brewing Company, Bog Brewing Company and Old Coast Ales.

That mix of beer and setting is what makes this festival stand out. The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is no ordinary event lawn. It is described as the site of the first Spanish settlement in the New World, founded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565, and as the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in North America. The 15-acre park also includes the Discovery Globe, a planetarium, a Timucua Indian exhibit and the reconstructed First Mission of Nombre de Dios, giving the beer festival a backdrop most tap takeovers can only envy.

The event kept the format focused on sampling rather than marathon drinking. General admission was listed at $50 in advance and $60 at the gate if available, with VIP tickets at $120. Attendees received a tasting cup and could sample unlimited beer at tents around the park, with organizers also telling guests to bring a reusable water bottle for the water station. Food trucks from Northeast Florida rounded out the day.

Beyond the pours, the festival also functioned as a fundraiser for Brewing a Community, which distributes proceeds to local organizations. The 2026 beneficiaries were EPIC Behavioral Healthcare, the St. Johns County Council on Aging, the St. Johns County Marine Science Program and the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum. That kind of built-in local support helps explain why the festival has held on for seven years in a market where brewery closures and consolidation have made stability harder to come by.

The brewery mix also reflected the strength of St. Augustine’s beer scene. Dog Rose Brewing Company opened in October 2017 in Lincolnville, Ancient City Brewing calls itself St. Augustine’s first craft brewery, and Old Coast Ales describes itself as a 7-barrel brewery in the heart of the city. With Florida’s Historic Coast framing spring as festival season, the Craft Brewers’ Festival once again gave the city a compact, high-visibility beer weekend in one of its most recognizable places.