Palmetto Brewing Tour! ~ Charleston Craft Beer

Last Friday, the wifey and I got a chance to tour the Palmetto Brewing Company. When we arrived, we met Chris Winn in the Tasting Room who was chatting it up with a few guys who were in town from North Carolina. I (wifey is preggers) enjoyed a few samples of Palmetto's brews, while listening to Chris talk it up. I could have sat there all day, as Chris was very entertaining and seemingly pretty damn brilliant. As for the beers, I got to sample the Lager, Pale Ale, Ginger Slap, and the Espresso Porter. I enjoyed all four, but really was intrigued by the Ginger Slap since there aren't too many beers like it out there. It was also pretty cool to hear how they use Espresso beans from their next door neighbors (Charleston Coffee Roasters) to make their tasty Espresso Porter. From what I gathered, the Palmetto crew drink lots of their coffee and the peeps at Charleston Coffee Roasters get a lot a beer in return. A pretty sweet relationship if you ask me.

After chumming it up in the Tasting Room for about 45 minutes, Chris then led us on a great tour of the brewery. He talked history of the brewery, history of the original Palmetto Brewery, and a great overview of the brewing process (from grain to the bottling line). Overall it was a great tour and I learned a lot. Some cool facts that I took away from the day are:

1) Palmetto Brewing was the first brewery to open in Charleston since Prohibition

2) The original Palmetto Brewery operated in Charleston from before the Civil War until sometime after the turn of the 20th century.

3) The original Palmetto Brewery made an "Earthquake Beer" after the 1886 Earthquake as part of the city's celebration of it's survival of the earthquake that devastated the city in August of that year. The modern day Palmetto Brewing recently came out with their "Aftershock" Steam Beer to commemorate the 125th Anniversary of the great quake.

Here are some more pics from the day: