#8 - South Carolina, "The Palmetto State" - Intro

I've been to South Carolina twice in my life, not counting the time my family passed through on the family driving vacation to Disney World that pretty much any East Coast family does at some point. The first time I went was after I graduated high school. I spent a week in Myrtle Beach with my friends. I don't think I ventured farther than a mile from the house we were staying in. I'm sure I went to the beach every day, but I remember very little about the sand and ocean. Instead I have fond memories of beer-amids, broken kitchen tables, and beach-tricycle gangs. Someone please remind me in like 20 years to never let my teenage children out of the house.

My second visit to SC was last year. My wife and I drove through Columbia from Charlotte and spent one night in Charleston, and I would have been perfectly content just staying there and never coming back. We both loved it. The weather was great, the town has a ton of charm, and the food was awesome. We will definitely be going back.

Beer Stats for South Carolina:
# of Breweries: 8
# of Brew Pubs: 10
# of Planned Breweries: 1
Population: 4.6 million (24th largest)
Notable Cities: Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg, Myrtle Beach
# of interesting sights I saw in between the major cities on my drive last year: 0. It's as if the only people that live in rural south carolina are some hybrid between hillbillies and the Navy Seals. They love living in the woods, don't farm, and blend in so well that you don't know they exist until they're right behind you and they are holding a weapon. I've never been mugged in South Carolina, I just assume that if you stumble onto the property of one of these Hillbilly Seals, you automatically end up with a firearm pointed in your vicinity.

After reading over the South Carolina laws pertaining to alcohol production and consumption, I found far fewer crazy antiquated beer laws than I thought I would. I had read somewhere that the ABV is limited to 6% for beers produced in SC, but I wasn't able to find that in the laws, so maybe that was a recent change for the better. The only interesting law I found is that Brew Pubs are limited to a maximum of two thousand barrels per year to sell at their restaurant. I have no idea if that is enough to sustain and grow a restaurant business, but I did see a relatively large number of brew pubs during my search that had closed in the last few years, so maybe that restriction held some of them back.

South Carolina doesn't have a huge brewery contingency, but it's fairly respectable. Of the nine full fledged breweries, four are in or near Charleston. Fort Mill, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Spartanburg, and Hilton Head each have one apiece. I've only had beer from one of the breweries and that was only this past weekend. I'll have to see if I can seek some out before finishing this month.

Next week I'll be giving some music recommendations and writing about 4 or 5 breweries, including COAST Brewing, which seems to be a local favorite in Charleston.