After years pouring pints for other people, a longtime Odessa bartender is now calling his own shots from behind the brewhouse. Austin Wright has opened Gulf Pine Brewing in the former Brū Florida Growler Bar spot on Gunn Highway, turning the onetime taproom into a small-batch brewery and laid-back neighborhood hangout. After soft openings in late 2025, the taproom shifted to regular hours and a January grand opening, and it is already lining up events and rotating guest taps.
According to Tampa Beacon, Wright started out working at the old Brū taproom, then picked up homebrewing a few years later. He led the buildout of Gulf Pine and now brews the house recipes himself. The Beacon reports that partners in the venture include Duke Wright and investors Jason and Rhonda Holloway, and that the brewery moved from late 2025 soft openings to regular hours in mid-January 2026.
State business records pulled through BizProfile list Gulf Pine Brewing LLC with a principal address of 8729 Gunn Hwy and name Austin J. Wright as the registered agent. Those filings show the LLC was created in January 2025, which means the company was formalized well before the soft openings. Mapping and business listings place the new brewery in the same Gunn Highway unit that previously housed Brū Florida Growler Bar, according to local entries on MapQuest.
Small-batch brewing setup
Wright runs Gulf Pine on a deliberately compact system of about 30 gallons per batch, a scale that favors variety and taproom freshness over sheer volume, as outlined by Tampa Beacon. Many small commercial breweries use multi-barrel systems, where a 3.5 barrel setup yields roughly 100 gallons, since one U.S. beer barrel equals 31 gallons per BrewTogether. That tighter output lets Gulf Pine keep an ever-changing slate of experimental beers on the board while still pouring guest taps from nearby breweries.
Local listings show Gulf Pine keeping varying hours from Thursday through Sunday and pouring a mix of house-made beers and guest offerings, according to its venue page on Untappd and neighborhood event calendars. Community event postings, including a mid-January grand opening with food trucks and giveaways, appeared on sites such as AllEvents as the brewery announced its regular schedule. North Tampa community guides now plug upcoming taproom happenings such as chili cook-offs and trivia nights, a sign the spot is already working its way into the local nightlife circuit.
For Odessa drinkers, Gulf Pine is a neighborhood-scale brewery that trades big distribution plans for fresh, frequently changing taps. Expect short-run releases and a steady stream of community events as Wright settles into his first full season behind the brewkit.
