SFLHops meetup group gathering for Second Anniversary Beer Festival in Fort Lauderdale

SFLHops meetup is a gathering of craft-beer fans led by founder Stuart Skopit, of Hollywood. On Saturday, Feb. 4, the group will host the Second Anniversary SFLHops Beer Festival at Craft Beer Cartel in Fort Lauderdale. (Andrew Chunis / Courtesy)

When Stuart Skopit goes out drinking these days, he does so with 900 friends, a fellowship of craft-beer fans brought together through his meetup group, SFLHops.

The resident says his close female friends prefer wine while his male buddies prefer to stay home with the kids. So he created his own network of hop heads.

“My guy friends are on lockdown these days,” says Skopit, 41, and a Broward County educator by day. “But I wound up finding this big community online. I was just hoping to meet a few new friends and have drinks with them.”

 

A few new friends turned into 900 beer lovers on Meetup.com, where the group originated in 2015, and hundreds more across SFLHop’s Facebook page and Instagram account. This Saturday, Feb. 4, they will come together again for the SFLHops Second Anniversary Beer Festival, a roundup of 24 local breweries pouring about 30 varieties of craft beer in the parking lot of Craft Beer Cartel in Fort Lauderdale.