Pub crawl to mix bicycling and beer

Choosing a beer used to be simple, but with all the selection today, it’s hard to know where to find the best options. This weekend, discovering new beer at local venues will be as easy as riding a bike.

On Saturday, instead of worrying about driving and parking, more than 100 cyclists joining The Beer Snob Bicycle Pub Crawl will ride a bike from one bar to another and try different beer at each stop.

Dave Crisafi, 35, creator of the South Florida Beer Blog, will be riding in the pub crawl for the first time.

“I just think that being able to do a group ride and also go to bars and drink good beers is fun,” said Crisafi, 35.

Cyclists and beer lovers will ride to five venues throughout the night, starting at Rio Station, a Miami Beach restaurant formerly known as Zekes.

The pub crawl riders will bike from 8 to 12 miles.

The first stop will be at The Abbey Brewing Company, also in Miami Beach. The group will then head to Gramps in Wynwood, and the last two stops are in downtown, at The DRB and The Filling Station, where the ride ends, a few blocks from the Government Center Metrorail station.

The cyclists will have access to different special deals on beer prices at each stop during the event, like $2 off all beers at Gramps, a neighborhood bar in Wynwood and the newest venue on the route this time.

“With the artsy location, gritty feel and outdoor area, Gramps fits perfectly in the Beer Snob Bicycle Pub Crawl,” said Alejandro Alfonso, 31, bartender at Gramps. “Especially for such a huge group of people, there’s a lot of space and we have a great selection of beers to offer.”

The Beer Snob route emphasizes on stopping at bars with a wide beer selection that might be new or unknown to the participants.

Michael Sheerin, 51, long time cyclist and a professor of advertising and public relations at Florida International University, has participated in past Beer Snob Bicycle Pub Crawls.

“It was fun to discover a good bar while riding a bike,” said Sheerin. “That’s what the ride tries to do. Go to some new places that you might have never been to.”

Sheerin said though the event, first organized two years ago and hosted semiannually, is a “pub-crawl” ride, it does not encourage too much drinking." The point of the ride isn’t to get drunk but to be social and be athletic,” said Sheerin. “You don’t drink three beers at the first stop. You have a beer, ride, have a beer, ride. So it’s more about having a good beer, having good conversation and riding your bike.”