Bottling an 'Island State of Mind': FAU Business Alumni and Co-founders of Islamorada Beverages

One of South Florida's Leading Brewery and Distillery Companies

A shared love of sun, sand, fishing and good beer—sounds like a theme to a Jimmy Buffett song—is what led a trio of FAU alumni to brew up the idea for Islamorada Beverages.

The Islamorada Beer Company, its original name, was born during weekend fishing trips to the Keys in the mid-2000s. Conversations about needing a lighter craft beer to complement their tropical “fun-in-the sun” lifestyle turned FAU college friends Tyrone Bradley ’08, ’13, Chris Trentine ’05 and Whitney Trentine ’07, along with their friend, Nik Schroth, into business partners.

Fast forward less than a decade later, and this crafty idea has turned
into a successful brewery and distillery company, where an Island
State of Mind™ can be found in a bottle – or a can – across Florida.
“We started this company as a part of what we already did: hanging
out and going to charity events, football games, and the sandbar on
the weekends,” said Chris Trentine, an Islamorada native. “It all came to fruition from our lifestyles, and the brand is now part of our lifestyle.”

The group opened its first location, a tasting room, in 2014 in Islamorada at Mile Marker 82 with its flagship beer, Sandbar Sunday, an American wheat ale named for the popular sandbar gatherings of boaters off Islamorada Key. Two other island-themed flavors were added to the menu: Islamorada Ale, an island citrus ale, and Channel Marker IPA, an India pale ale. Within a year, the brewery was designated the No. 9 top place to visit in Islamorada by TripAdvisor, where today it remains a “Travelers’ Choice” and is currently ranked No. 3 for top attractions on the popular travel website. A second site opened in 2016 in Fort Pierce with a tasting room, and also a full production facility with brewing capacity for 75,000 barrels — or nearly 1 million beers per year — making it the largest craft brewery on the Treasure Coast.

Today the company has grown from three employees to more than 100, with 3,500 distribution points across Florida and a third brewery and distillery under construction.

The three alumni credit their educational and student-life experiences at Florida Atlantic with the incredible success of their growing businesses. As undergraduates, they each gained invaluable knowledge through the classes they shared in the College of Business.

Bradley’s business acumen, along with his B.B.A. degree and then MBA from FAU Executive Education, have been instrumental in his ability to guide the overall strategy and direction of the company as its CEO. As the owner of a construction company, Chris Trentine’s business background and experience have been a huge part in the successful planning and execution of the building of the Islamorada Beverages’ facilities. Whitney Trentine, who oversees the South operations, is affectionately deemed as “the glue” by her co-founders. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree in business at FAU, she held internships in the President’s Office and at the Eleanor R. Baldwin House, which she said taught her valuable life lessons.

Read more about these amazing Business Owls in the latest issue of Florida Atlantic magazine (pp.64-65).

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