South Carolina Brewery Map and Trailies

If you drive from West to East in South Carolina, it will take you about 8 hours to get to every brewery. Realistically, and of course if you have a driver, you could probably do the first three in one day. Then you could visit the four Charleston area breweries over two days. And finally, you could enjoy New South all by itself and then relax on the beach while you bask in your newly gained brewing knowledge.

Here's the list of the breweries:
A - Thomas Creek
B - RJ Rockers
C - Skull Coast
D - Holy City
E - COAST
F - Palmetto
G - Westbrook
H - New South

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Trailies:
Most Creative Beer Styles: Skull Coast Ale Company. They like nuts. I have no idea when or how you add nuts during the brewing process, but they make an almond pale ale, and a porter with macadamia nuts, so they must grasp the concept.
Best Beer Name: Fish Paralyzer, RJ Rockers. I haven't been able to discern the origin of it's name, but I imagine that a pet fish drank too much of it and thought he could jump out of the tank, only to come up short, hit the edge, and paralyze himself. Somewhere there is a fish in a wheel chair that despises RJ Rockers.
Most Interesting Beer: White Thai, Westbrook Brewing. I'll definitely be trying this beer the next time I'm in Charleston, or if it somehow miraculously gets shipped to my front door....

http://westbrookbrewing.com/beers/year-round-beers/

Best Label: HopArt IPA, COAST Brewing. Brewers generally have a love affair with the hop flower. There's no doubting that it can get weird and border on psychopathic obsession, but in this case, I think it's an homage. Also, do I see a pirate down there on the bottom row?

 

http://www.coastbrewing.com/beers.php

The Palmetto State is an up and comer in the craft beer landscape. On top of creating quality brews, the  breweries there are also embracing the concept of green brewing. None of them have too large of a distribution footprint, but if you are in the Carolinas or Georgia anytime soon, be sure to throw back a couple  South Carolina brews. Next up is a drive back up the East coast to New Hampshire.

South Carolina Breweries in Planning

After my first post this month, I emailed Westbrook Brewery to find out more information about their White Thai beer. One of the owners responded and she told me how they came up with the recipe. Here is the story she told me;

“It's funny that you asked about the White Thai! The White Thai is a whit bier, but with a fun twist. We used lemon grass, Sorachi Ace hops, and ginger instead of the traditional orange peel and coriander. The reason I say it's funny you asked about it, is because this is one of our home brewing recipes! This is probably more info than you want to know, but here is it's story:

Edward and I were making (Thai) curry one night and he was talking about what beer we would pair with our dinner. At the time, I loathed IPAs (What was I thinking?! Don't worry, I grew out of it!). He kept insisting IPA was the best beer to pair with dinner. I was begging Edward, "There has to be something else that would be good and not hoppy!". I was peeling the ginger and he and I glanced out the kitchen window and saw the large lemon grass bush growing there. We cut it down, saved the ginger for brewing, and there you have it! A beer that is completely versatile and great for the Charleston summer heat!”

So, they changed the general whit beer formula and used lemon grass and ginger instead. I’ve yet to have the White Thai, but she assured me that it was “bad ass.” So, their creativity paid off in this case. 

But coming up with a great recipe and then brewing it is not always that easy. They were homebrewing for six years before they started their brewery. Over that time I’m sure they came up with a bunch of different recipes for other beers that they didn’t quite like as much. But they kept experimenting, learned from some of the other breweries in Charleston and since they were doing what was exciting to them and what they were passionate about they cared enough to make sure it succeeded. One of them even went to grad school to get the business side of things down. They work a lot, but they have fun doing it, and that’s something I think everyone has the desire to do. Check out Westbrook if you are ever in South Carolina. They have been really interesting to talk to.

I think it’s great to find people with such passion about something that they are willing to give it a try, even though others might be saying “why don’t you just get a job at x,” or “that sounds like it’s pretty risky.” Yesterday at the Manayunk Arts Festival right here where I live we happened to stop in the booth of a guy who made bow-ties. Within two minutes I could tell that he truly loved making bow ties. He was saying stuff like “we need to figure out how you are feeling and what statement you want to make with these bow-ties.” And he was asking specific questions about people in an honest effort to find them the right bow tie. He couldn’t have cared less about the money that he would make if the person bought a bow tie. He just really wanted to find a bow tie to fit each person's personality. The guy was awesome. I’m thinking about emailing him and asking him to be my life coach or something. 


But it's not just that guy or Westbrook Brewing that are passionate. There are thousands of breweries in the U.S. trying to make true quality beer. One of the newest is Holy City Brewing, which is located in North Charleston and is the only brewery that I could find in South Carolina that is currently in the planning stages. They were established this year and for now they will have two year rounds, with one rotating seasonal. The year rounds are Holy City Pilsner and Pluff Mud Porter. Pluff Mud is a local term for the mud in the marshes. Holy City is planning on becoming a self-sustainable brewery, so I asked them what that meant. What they said was that they are starting out by using a bio-diesel fueled burner, recapturing as much water as possible, using a hot water tank, and recycling their spent grains by donating them to local farmers. That's a good start and they said that they will do what they can to get closer to full self-sustainability.

There may be more, but I was able to find eleven brew pubs in South Carolina, most lacking a full website, so we'll pass this month. Later this week, I'll post the brewery map for South Carolina, I'll hand out some Trailies, and I may have some loose ends to tie up. 

South Carolina - Breweries and Music

Charleston seems to be the epicenter of culture in South Carolina, so I'll start with the breweries in and around the city. The one time I was in Charleston, I failed to try any of these beers, so hopefully within the next year or so, I can get back down there and sample them all.


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.