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Locals’ Beach Season: How to Pick, Use and Care for a Beach Towel
Late September is locals’ beach season in South Florida, and the towel in your bag does more work than anything else you carry: seat, pillow, changing screen, and the thing you wrap up in when the sky turns. The September equinox arrived last night, Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 8:05 p.m. EDT, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Earth’s Seasons table for 2026. In Delray Beach today, the sun came up at 7:09 a.m. and sets at 7:15 p.m., according to USNO’s one-day sun and moon calculator, set to Delray Beach for Sept. 23. Here is how to pick a towel, when to reach for it, and how to look after it.
How to pick: by the kind of beach day you’re having
The four towels below share the same listing basics. Each product page calls the towel oversized and soft and absorbent, and says its color holds up through salt, sun and washing. The pages don’t list a fabric or dimensions, so we won’t guess at either. The real decision is the art.
- Mahi-Mahi is for the crew that spends weekends chasing fish offshore. The listing describes art “capturing the fish’s signature blue, green, and gold,” and it is the brightest towel of the four.
- Octopus is black with a white octopus sprawled across it, which the product page calls “deep-reef art.” It’s the high-contrast pick, and easy to find again when you walk back up from a swim.
- Diver’s Helmet wears “vintage hardhat-diver art” with “a classic nautical, salvage-era feel,” in the listing’s words. It carries the full Saltwater Brewery name on the helmet, if you want the brewery along for the day.
- Sea Cow is covered in manatees. The page says it “tips its cap to our milk stout and the gentle manatees that share our waters.” That’s Sea Cow, our Milk Stout, at 6% ABV and 32 IBU.
More designs are in the beach towel collection.
When to use it: a late-September beach day
Go early. A sunrise start leaves time for a walk and a sit on the sand before most people reach their desks. Spread the towel above the wet sand and that’s your spot for the morning. If you’re getting in the water, wait until the lifeguards are on duty.
Check the water before you go in. The National Weather Service says to look at the local beach forecast before you leave and to talk to the lifeguard when you get there, and it puts the rule plainly: “Only swim at a beach with lifeguards.” If a rip current does catch you, NOAA’s National Ocean Service says don’t fight it. Swim parallel to the shore, then swim back to land at an angle.
Watch the afternoon sky. The NWS lightning safety overview says there is no safe place outside when thunderstorms are in the area, and to wait 30 minutes after the last lightning or thunder before going back outside. Its short version is “When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!” That’s when the towel goes over your shoulders and you head for the car.
Look up the water quality. The Florida Department of Health routinely monitors beach water for fecal indicator bacteria and posts results and any advisories on each county’s page, so look up Palm Beach County before you go.
Take it all home. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Beach Furniture and Sea Turtles guidance says beach furniture should be completely removed from the beach at night, because furniture left out can keep nesting sea turtles from reaching the upper beach. Do the same with everything you carry down: chairs, umbrella and towel all go home.
How to look after it
None of the four listings include care instructions, so read this as a simple routine that keeps a beach towel fresh between trips, not as a care label.
- Shake it out on the sand before you leave the beach, not in the parking lot and not in the car.
- Rinse the salt out with fresh water once you’re home.
- Hang it up to dry. Don’t leave it balled up wet in the trunk or at the bottom of the bag.
- Wash it every few trips, or whenever it needs it, and let it dry all the way.
- Put it back in the bag once it’s dry, ready for the next early morning.
The listings do make one promise worth knowing: each says the color holds up through salt, sun and washes. The part that’s up to you is not letting a wet towel sit.
Ordering, and where to go after the beach
Every towel here is $34.95. We offer free U.S. shipping on orders over $75, so three towels (one for you, a spare, and one for whoever always forgets theirs) clear that line. We ship merch within the USA only, and we don’t sell or ship beer online.
When you’re sandy, salty and ready for a cold one, the taproom is at 1701 W. Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach, the first building off the I-95 Atlantic Ave exit. On Wednesdays we’re open 12 to 10, and food on site comes from the rotating food trucks out front. The events page lists what’s on that week.
Pick the art that fits your kind of beach day, take the whole kit home every night, and hang the towel up before it goes back in the bag. Then come find us in the taproom.