Charleston, South Carolina

The Charleston area has a growing craft beer scene, and this site is designed to keep you updated on all the great places you can go to enjoy quality craft beer.

Homebrewing in Charleston

Check out the Homebrewing in Charleston link above to learn about the Low Country Libations. This is the local homebrewing club in Charleston. Also follow the links to recommended homebrewing stores.

Check out the local breweries

Check out the Local Breweries link above to find out where you can sample local craft beer.

Craft beer selection

Check out the Where to Buy Craft Beer link above to find restaurants and stores with good selection of craft beer.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Restaurants With Great Selection!


(Locations in downtown Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, and West Ashley)
Lots of drafts and bottled beer to choose from.
Mt. Pleasant location has 21 beers on tap and over 100 bottles to choose from.
West Ashley location has 32 beers on tap and over 100 bottles to choose from
The downtown location has 21 beers on tap and over 100 bottles to choose from.

427 West Coleman Blvd.
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
16 rotating taps of top quality import and domestic craft beer.

1028 Johnnie Dodds Blvd.
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
36 beers on tap, including some of their own microbrewed beers!

453 King Street
Charleston, SC 29403
42 beers on tap, available in three different sizes (10 oz, 16 oz. and 1 liter)

817 Savannah Highway
Charleston, SC 29407
190+ beers and over 24 high gravity beers to choose from.  17 beers on tap.

1234 Camp Road
Charleston, SC 29412
Excellent selection with 45 craft beers on tap

1075 East Montague
North Charleston, SC 29405
Six taps, and over 20 bottles to choose from. Quality not quanity!

891 Island Park Drive
Daniel Island, SC 29492
6-taps of high quality craft beer and an extensive selection of hard to find bottled beers

825 Savannah Highway
Charleston, SC 29407
Small but excellent selection of draft and bottled craft beer. (They have plans to eventually grow from their current 6 taps to 16 taps).  Over 30 bottles to choose from.

18 Vendue Range
Charleston, SC 29401
10+ taps of quality craft beer selection.  Great pub atmosphere!
656 Long Point Road
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
24 taps of quality beer selection.  Can fill a growler as well. 
160 Church Street
Charleston, SC 29401
20 beers on tap, 15 of which are local and craft beers. 

545 Belle Station Boulevard
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
16 taps of quality beer selection.  They also feature a huge selection (50 or so) of bottled beers.  

486 King St.
Charleston, SC 29403
Over 30 beers on tap and great happy hour deals. 
3563 N. Hwy 17
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
4 quality beers on tap, soon to be expanded to 10.  Also features an excellent bottled beer selection, including a good deal of 22 oz. bombers. 
4 Vanderhorst St.
Charleston, SC 29403
8 quality beers on tap, soon to be expanded to 12.  Also features an excellent bottle/can selection. 
803 Coleman Blvd.
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
17 quality beers on tap and a good selection of bottles.  Of the fine dining restaurants in the Charleston area, Red Drum has one of the best beer menus. 

119 Spring St.
Charleston, Sc 29403
21 beers on tap and good selection of bottles.
245 Seven Farms Drive
Daniel Island, SC 29492
16 quality beers on tap.  Another great spot on Daniel Island for craft beer!




Saturday, February 16, 2013

Adventures in Homebrewing- Brown Ale

Now that my son Max is 6 months old, I am now starting to find a little more time in my schedule to get back to homebrewing and blogging about it (as well as the Charleston craft beer scene).  Last weekend, my Assistant-brewer-in-law Joe C and I, brewed up a batch of our Brown Ale recipe.  We brewed this last September/October, and it came out so good we decided we needed to brew it again sooner than later.  We even entered it in the Palmetto State Brewers' Open, back in December.  Although it didn't place, it did score a 45 out of 50 on both of the judge's scorecards.  Must have been some stiff competition, as that is a really high score!  Oh well, better luck next time! Still a good homebrew.  We decided to keep all the malts the same, but to amp up the hop flavor/aroma.


Here's the recipe:

Brown Ale (5 gallon batch)
Malts
7 lbs Marris Otter
8 oz Caramel 60
8 oz Brown Malt
6 oz Victory
5 oz Chocolate Malt
4 oz Honey Malt

Hops
1/2 oz Magnum for 60 minutes
1/2 oz Simcoe for 10 minutes
1/2 oz Williamette for 10 minutes
1/2 oz Centennial for 5 minutes
1/2 oz Simcoe for 1 minute
1/2 oz Centennial for 1 minute
1/2 oz Williamette for 1 minute

Yeast
I re-used Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast from our previous batch of Brown Ale

The brew day went great, although I was worried I would be a bit rusty since it's been a few months since I last brewed.  We mashed the malts for 1 hour at 151 degrees, and then fly sparged for about 75 minutes.  We collected a little over 6 gallons and ended up with just about 5 gallons of wort.  The Original Gravity was 1.056 and the IBU's are approximately 45.

Check out the pics from our brew day.







Stay tuned to see how this beer turns out!

PS I received these in the mail from Midwest the same day we brewed!  Can't wait to start kegging my beer.  Been bottling long enough!



Cheers!

Other Adventures!

Saturday, July 28, 2012

July 28th-Upcoming Craft Beer Events!



Craft Beer Events 

Tastings:
Holy City Brewing: Monday and Tuesday 4pm-6pm, Wednesday-Friday 4pm-7pm, and Saturday from 12-4pm.  
Coast Brewing: Thursday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 11am-2pm.
Westbrook Brewing: Thursday and Friday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 12pm-4pm.
Total Wine & More: Every Thursday from 3pm-7pm.  Sample up to eight craft beers for free.
Bottles: Tap Takeovers every Thursday from 4:30pm-7:30pm.  

Friday, July 27, 2012

Sesame Burgers & Beer Review!


Recently checked out Sesame Burgers & Beer in Mt. Pleasant.  This is the newest and 3rd Sesame to open in the Charleston area over the last 5 years.  The first was in Park Circle in North Charleston.  Then they opened up at the Citadel Mall in West Ashley.  With business obviously doing well, they opened up the Mt. Pleasant location earlier this year.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

July 24th-Upcoming Craft Beer Events!




Craft Beer Events 

Tastings:
Holy City Brewing: Monday and Tuesday 4pm-6pm, Wednesday-Friday 4pm-7pm, and Saturday from 12-4pm.  
Coast Brewing: Thursday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 11am-2pm.
Westbrook Brewing: Thursday and Friday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 12pm-4pm.
Total Wine & More: Every Thursday from 3pm-7pm.  Sample up to eight craft beers for free.
Bottles: Tap Takeovers every Thursday from 4:30pm-7:30pm.  

Monday, July 23, 2012

Adventures in Homebrewing-Brewing with Dave from The Lost Beers!


This past weekend, my father in law and I brewed up a batch of beer with my friend David Fowlkes.  Dave is a former professional brewer, and used to brew at the The Mad Boar Restaurant and Brewery, which was located in North Myrtle Beach.  This brewpub has since closed, and David has moved on to working for Piggly Wiggly The Pig, and just homebrewing for fun!  Read more about David and The Mad Boar Restaurant and Brewery here.  In addition, he runs an awesome website called The Lost Beers.  The website states: "Our goal is to provide lost beer recipes from professional brewers across America to the home brewer. Our recipes have ALL been submitted by the actual brewers and are not “clone” recipes. Some of the recipes were submitted by the brewers in 5 gallon yield formats and some we have converted from the actual large batch size recipes." It's a website that I check out quite frequently!

Monday, July 16, 2012

July 16th- Craft Beer Events Calendar!




Craft Beer Events 

Tastings:
Holy City Brewing: Monday and Tuesday 4pm-6pm, Wednesday-Friday 4pm-7pm, and Saturday from 12-4pm.  
Coast Brewing: Thursday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 11am-2pm.
Westbrook Brewing: Thursday and Friday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 12pm-4pm.
Total Wine & More: Every Thursday from 3pm-7pm.  Sample up to eight craft beers for free.
Bottles: Tap Takeovers every Thursday from 4:30pm-7:30pm.  

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Brewing With The Frothy Beard Brewing Company!


Yesterday, I got the chance to brew with the guys from The Frothy Beard Brewing Company.  If you haven't heard of them, check out this post.  They are local guys looking to open up a brewery in the Charleston area in the near future.  I am also lucky to call them my friends.  We recently formed a "team" (we call ourselves the HopStars) and entered the "Iron Brew" Homebrewing Competition.  This is a homebrewing contest put on by Mellow Mushroom (King St. and Avondale) and Holy City Brewing.  They had a happy hour party in June, where they announced the "secret ingredient" that all homebrewers had to use in their recipe.   The "secret ingredient" turned out to be honey.   The "winner receives a Mellow-Holy City prize pack, and the grand prize of a limited edition production of the winning beer to be sold as a draft beer exclusively at Mellow Mushroom Avondale and Mellow Mushroom King St."  The judging will take place in early September.  We got all the ingredients for this brew day at Holy City Brewing, who now sell grains, yeast, and hops!


Monday, July 9, 2012

July 9th! Craft Beer Events Calendar!


Craft Beer Events 

Tastings:
Holy City Brewing: Monday and Tuesday 4pm-6pm, Wednesday-Friday 4pm-7pm, and Saturday from 12-4pm.  
Coast Brewing: Thursday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 11am-2pm.
Westbrook Brewing: Thursday and Friday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 12pm-4pm.
Total Wine & More: Every Thursday from 3pm-7pm.  Sample up to eight craft beers for free.
Bottles: Tap Takeovers every Thursday from 4:30pm-7:30pm.  

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

June 26th-Craft Beer Events Calendar!




Craft Beer Events 

Tastings:
Holy City Brewing: Monday and Tuesday 4pm-6pm, Wednesday-Friday 4pm-7pm, and Saturday from 12-4pm.  
Coast Brewing: Thursday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 11am-2pm.
Westbrook Brewing: Thursday and Friday from 4pm-7pm and Saturday from 12pm-4pm.
Total Wine & More: Every Thursday from 3pm-7pm.  Sample up to eight craft beers for free.
Bottles: Tap Takeovers every Thursday from 4:30pm-7:30pm.  

June 27th
Laura Alberts will host Founders Brewing for their Growler Hour, starting at 5pm. Beers on tap will include Founders Red Rye PA, Centennial IPA, Dry Hopped Pale Ale, and Dirty Bastard Scottish Ale.  Drafts are a dollar off and free growler mug with purchase of a fill.  

June 28th
Bottles will have a Samuel Adams Tap Takeover starting from 4:30pm-7:30pm.