COAST Brewing, Noisette. Charleston has an environmentally friendly vibe to it and COAST is definitely part of that. They are located in a sustainable community in North Charleston, about 7 or 8 miles outside of downtown Charleston. They use organic and local ingredients whenever possible, and brew their 17 beers in a biodiesel-fired brew kettle. I know a few people that run their cars on biodisel and their exhaust always smells like french fries, so I wonder how the brewery smells, or if they have a good way of containing the smell. Their slogan is perfect for a beach town; "Slow Down, Relax and Enjoy Life...And a Good Beer. Good Surf too.." I really like the Warhol inspired HopArt IPA label art. Also, as someone who really likes a heavier smoother beer, I would like to try the Porter, Smoked. It's brewed with malt that is smoked with cherry wood and has low bitterness. Right up my alley. They have been brewing since 2007 and are available all over North and South Carolina.
Palmetto Brewing, Charleston. Open since 1994, they are the oldest brewery in the Charleston area and as such, their slogan is "Charleston's Original Beer." The original Palmetto Brewing operated from right before the Civil War to the early part of the 20th century. The new Palmetto makes four beers which are distributed in the greater Charleston and Hilton Head areas. They make an Amber, Pale Ale, Lager, and Porter. Each label features a Palmetto tree and different background colors depending on the beer. Pretty basic artwork, but not offensively bad. As long as the beer tastes good, I'm cool with it.
Westbrook Brewing, Mount Pleasant. The newest addition to the Charleston beer scene, they began production in December of last year. Their website says that they are still tweaking their recipes to try to reproduce some of their previous successful homebrews on a larger scale. It looks like they have a really nice tasting room, and they are available in South Carolina. They make three year rounds; an IPA, a Belgian Pale, and what they call a White Thai, as well as 1 seasonal and 3 specials. I was interested to see what exactly the White Thai was, so I emailed them. Hopefully in my SC wrap up post, I'll tell the story behind that beer and get into a few more beers/breweries on a more in-depth scale.
Music:
I enjoy many types of music and South Carolina lets me indulge in both country music and indie rock. Here are two of my favorites from the Palmetto State.
Hootie. Everybody knows him and I don't know anyone that didn't at least tap along to Only Wanna Be With You back in the 90's. I still do. Now, under what I can only assume is a stage name because country fans wouldn't accept his real name of Hootie Andtheblowfish, Darius Rucker is back to making good music. It could be classified as pop country, which I generally detest, but he's got a great sound and his lyrics are honest and not overly corny. His newest album is called Charleston, 1966 because he is from Charleston and he was either born in 1966 or he has 1966 cars because he is filthy rich.
Band of Horses has become one of my favorite bands, and they are now based out of Charleston as well. Ben Bridwell, the lead singer, grew up in South Carolina, but formed Band of Horses in Seattle before they moved back East recently. My wife thinks his voice is too high, so I went through their 32 songs off of all three records and found every song in which I thought his voice was at an acceptable octave. I found 11. So, ok, he likes to sing a little high. You’ll get over it when you listen to the music because it's awesome. I've heard a lot of people compare it to My Morning Jacket, but I find it to be much different. The lyrics can be hard to hear and the meanings even harder to really figure out, but once you love their music, you’ll go check out the lyrics and read your own meaning into them. Which I’m pretty sure is the point of most music.
Next week, the rest of the breweries and some places you have to check out if you are in South Carolina.
