🎉 Good news for fútbol fans, basketball fans, the Everglades, and manatees

Plus, where to drink local this weekend and how to celebrate National Pie Day.

By Katie Johnston

Happy Friday!

If you like beer and are not partaking in Dry January, you’re going to love what Orlando’s brewing up this weekend.

For starters, Otter Fest returns to Wekiva Island tomorrow. It’s a craft beer lover’s dream — you can sample hops from 16 participating breweries and have some outdoor fun along the way. As it so happens, Orlando Beer Week is also kicking off tomorrow. It’s exactly what it sounds like: an annual week of fun when local breweries and package stores unveil new beer releases, throw parties, host intoxicating events, and other such shenanigans. Between the Beer Week Bingo going down in the Milk District, the return of Sour Fest at Bowigens Beer Company, Ellipsis Brewing's four-year anniversary quad can beer drop, and Sideward’s Sabbath celebration, your calendar is about to be fuller than your belly.

But before you whet your whistle, let’s take a look at what’s happening around the City Beautiful heading into the weekend…

Some might argue that this is the best week of the Orlando calendar year — they have some pretty persuasive points! 📸: @orlbeerweek | Wanna see your photo here? Tag either #pulptown or @pulptown on Instagram to be featured as our IG of the Day!

What Orlando is talking about

😎 Orlando’s future is looking bright… at least when it comes to our food and drink scene. Check out this roundup of the best new concepts coming to — or have already opened in — the City Beautiful in 2022. ➡️ (Orlando Date Night Guide)

🏀 Newsflash: You can ride the SunRail for free if you’re heading to the Orlando Magic game tonight. The free ride, which is part of a deal between the Florida Department of Transportation and the team, will be an option for fans during home games for all of 2022. All you have to do is show your game ticket to the conductor — next thing you know, you’ll have a ticket to ride. (Bungalower)

⚽️ Get excited, fútbol fans: Orlando will host the final home World Cup qualifier in March for the U.S. national men’s soccer team. The game is set for March 27 at Exploria Stadium against Panama — the last time we hosted a World Cup qualifier was in 2017, and coincidentally, it happened to be between USNMT and Panama. Presale tickets to the match will be available starting Monday, Jan. 24. and the general public will be able to score tickets starting Feb. 1. (WKMG / Orlando Sentinel)

Related: David Rohe — a contributor to The Mane Land who happens to be a longtime Orlando City fan despite his Tallahassee residence —wrote an opinion piece on how the franchise needs to do a better job of engaging with supporters. The piece starts off with a solid point about how ironic it is that teams that “rose from USL to Major League Soccer on the strength of its community support is struggling for fan engagement.” It’ll make you think, and also hopefully make you want to go to a match this year. Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said Orlando City is ready to get back to work and the new Head Coach of the Orlando Pride, Amanda Cromwell, identified her assistant coaching staff earlier this week.

🌅 Finally, some good news from the federal government: The Everglades is set to receive $1.1 billion in funding. The money was made available through last year’s infrastructure bill and is reportedly the largest single investment ever made into Everglades restoration efforts. Environmental advocates were surprised by the announcement and hope that the funds will go toward restoring water flow and improving seagrass health. “I was shocked,” Audubon Florida State Director Jerry Lorenz told CBS Miami. “I am very optimistic that this is truly what we need.” (CBS Miami / WPTV)

🙏 Manatees floated in droves toBlue Spring State Park this week, with a record-breaking 600 at last count on Tuesday. You can get a sneak peek at what a sea cow does all day by watching them through the park’s underwater webcam. It’s nice to finally see some good news about manatees for once. 😍 (Orlando Weekly)

🐊 Speaking of beloved Florida fauna, Gatorland has extended its resident deal through the end of February. This means you can still get a 50% discount by showing your proof of residency in the Sunshine State. ☀️ That’ll be $16.50 for adults and $11.50 for kids aged 3-12 years old. (News 13)

🐟 Considering all of this water talk, it doesn’t seem so surprising that Orlando ranked No. 7 in the best fishing cities in the U.S. The list was compiled by FishingBooker.com, which is the world’s self-proclaimed largest platform for connecting anglers and fishing guides. Our abundance of ponds and access to waterways helped our ranking. (Orlando Sentinel)

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Things to do

Submit your events to our calendar.

Today

🎨 Make your way to the Mennello Museum for opening night of its new exhibit featuring 30 years of the City of Orlando's public art collection from UCF Flying Horse Editions (Loch Haven Park)

🎨 Join Rollins Museum of Art’s Associate Curator of Education, Alexia Lobaina, on a tour of this exhibition highlighting what it means to be an ally in today’s challenging social landscape (Winter Park)

🎶 Jam out to the Oak Hill Drifters at The Imperial at Washburn Imports (Ivanhoe)

🍿Grab a friend and head to Ivanhoe Park Brewing for its weekly Brew & View, this time featuring "10 Things I Hate About You" (Ivanhoe)

Tomorrow

🍻 Enjoy locally-brewed beer and play Beer Week Bingo all week long while you're at it Jan 22 thru 29 (The Milk District)

🍻 Partake in some craft beer drinking at Wekiva Island’s Annual Otter Fest (Longwood)

🎉 Sample over 20 local food trucks and stick around for a special concert in the park featuring September Dogs at Reiter Park (Longwood)

♻️ Spend your Saturday helping to clean up the neighborhood and in exchange, get a few free drinks at some nearby watering holes (Ivanhoe)

🍻 Belly up at Bowigens Beer Company for the return of Sour Fest (Casselberry)

☮️ Get into cat pose with adorable (and adoptable) cats at The Kitty Beautiful Cat Cafe (Downtown)

👟 Get a healthy start to the New Year by running the Park Avenue 5k then stick around to indulge a little with grab and go treats from local favorites (Winter Park)

🍻 Celebrate Ellipsis Brewing's 4-year anniversary with a quad can beer drop and food trucks (Orlando)

🍺 Grab a fanny pack and your crimping iron, because the annual 90s Pub Crawl is going down this weekend (Downtown)

Sunday

🍻 Spend the Sabbath at Sideward Brewing with heavy music, heavy beer, and BBQ (The Milk District)

🛍 Shop local and shop vintage at this pop-up market going down at Ace Cafe (Downtown)

☮️ Sit back and relax at this sound garden put on by the HENAO Contemporary Center (Rosemont)

🍿Grab the kids and settle in for a Sunday matinee of "Dolphin Tale" (Maitland)

🛍 Shop for fresh produce, baked goods, crafts, gifts, jewelry, plants, and more at the weekly farmers market around Lake Eola (South Eola)

🎶 Sing along with Corrine Bailey Rae and Joss Stone at this incredible concert (Downtown)

Monday

💻 Don't miss this workshop geared toward mission-driven hustlers, career changers, and those who want to find their purpose, passion, and make an impact (Online)

Tuesday

🍻 Enjoy locally-brewed beer and play Beer Week Bingo all week long while you're at it Jan 22 thru 29 (The Milk District)

💼 Hey job-seekers, get industry insight about how to prepare for a successful interview during a free webinar hosted by Goodwill (Online)

🍿Watch the cult classic, "The Royal Tenenbaums" on the big screen at the Enzian (Maitland)

☝️ One more thing…

Sunday is National Pie Day. 🥧 There’s a quote I read once about how stress doesn’t exist in the presence of pie, and well, I can’t disagree. I grew up in the south, where Chess Pie, Strawberry Cobbler (a standard pie in my eyes), and Lemonade Pie were constantly in rotation. I feel like this makes me an expert on the delectable round dish, right? Anyway, my personal local favorite spots for pie are Sister Honey’s in SoDo, P is for Pie in Audubon Park, and Se7en Bites in the Milk District. You can find all three and nine other great pastry recommendations in this roundup by WKMG.

See you guys back here on Tuesday, unless you’re a super Pulptowner and also tune in to the 15 Minutes in Pulptown podcast on Mondays. 😉