Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company

Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company opened its Alden Road brewery in 2018, taking its name from the historic district around Lake Ivanhoe and from George Russell, the early 20th-century figure credited with developing the area. The site itself has a layered history: it sat on old orange groves, then a pineapple farm, then an amusement park called Joyland, and the brewery leans into that backstory in its branding and its beer names rather than treating it as trivia on a wall plaque. It’s an independent operation, brewed and owned locally rather than backed by a national beverage company, and it holds membership in the Florida Brewers Guild alongside other independently owned breweries in the state.

The core lineup includes the Park Hopp’r Golden Pilsner, Joyland American IPA, Bungalow Belgian Witbier, Toboggan Blonde Ale, Tupac ShaPorter, and Guavacation Sour, with rotating seasonal releases filling out the rest of the taps throughout the year. The brewery has picked up recognition within the industry, including a gold medal for the Tupac ShaPorter at a regional competition, and it self-distributes to bars and restaurants around Central Florida in addition to pouring pints on site. The taproom is set up for hanging out rather than rushing through a flight: there’s indoor and outdoor seating, food trucks rotate through on a regular schedule most weeks, and the space tends to draw a mixed crowd of neighborhood regulars, dogs on leashes, and beer-league sports fans watching whatever’s on the TVs that day.

A second location, the Ivanhoe Park Lager House on North Orange Blossom Trail, opened later and focuses specifically on lagers, giving the brewery two distinct Orlando spots without turning into a sprawling chain spread across the state. Both locations pour beer brewed by the same team and share the same independent ownership, which included a stretch of equity crowdfunding through StartEngine to help fund growth, an approach that kept the business locally controlled rather than selling out to a larger beverage conglomerate, a fairly common fate for growing craft breweries around the country once they hit a certain size.

Hours at the main brewery run from 4pm on weekdays and start at noon on weekends, staying open until midnight Friday and Saturday, with the Lager House keeping a slightly different schedule that’s closed Monday and Tuesday and opens midday later in the week. For anyone building an Orlando brewery crawl, Ivanhoe Park is a solid anchor point given its central location near the Ivanhoe Village district, close enough to Loch Haven Park and the museums there to make an easy afternoon out of the visit before or after a growler fill.