JOHN CHEEK PHOTO VIA SODO DISTRICT MAIN STREET
Captain John Dickinson Cheek, the longtime owner of Orlando Brewing and a key figure in the city’s early craft beer movement, passed away on Sunday, December 7, at the age of 72. His death marks the loss of one of Orlando’s original brewing pioneers.
The Kansas-born Cheek founded Orlando Brewing in 2004, opening the brewery south of downtown at a time when craft beer was still, well, brewing. The brewery became Florida’s first certified organic brewery in 2006. Over nearly two decades, the brewery produced a range of well-known beers, including Olde Pelican English Pale Ale, O-Town Brown Ale, and the Chocolate Mint Girl Stout, created in collaboration with Babes Brews.
By launching and sustaining one of the city’s first craft breweries, he helped lay the groundwork for the many independent breweries that followed. His legacy remains part of Orlando’s brewing history and the community he helped build.
He came from a military family and graduated from Frederick Military Academy in Virginia before earning a finance degree at the University of Florida. He was a nine-year veteran of the United States Army, where he earned the rank of captain, before retiring in 1985.
Orlando Brewing closed in 2022 after 17 years in operation, citing rising costs and business challenges following the pandemic, and after losing its warehouse to Orlando Health.
