February 2012
14 posts
2 tags
Bell's Hopslam
Bell’s Brewery, Inc.
Galesburg, MI
Hopslam Ale
10.0% ABV
I didn’t discover Bell’s Hopslam - and the ensuing insanity - until the 2011 release. Actually, until after the 2011 release, when it had disappeared from store shelves. Fortunately, I happened to make a trip to our local Total Wine and found the last six pack in Columbia just sitting on the shelf waiting to be...
1 tag
A Quick Thanks
Tuesday’s post about Funky Buddha got quite a bit of traction across Twitter and online. Thanks to numerous retweets from Twitter followers - including the folks at Funky Buddha, who also linked to the blog in a post of their own - I saw I huge spike in traffic. By “huge,” I mean around 200 hits, most of which came from new visitors (who I hope will continue to come back). That...
2 tags
Funky Buddha Wins Brewvival
Going into Brewvival 2012, I was plenty excited about a lot of the stuff on hand - Bell’s Black Note, vintage stuff from Stone and COAST, new offerings from Green Flash and Westbrook, and so on. But in the week leading up to the festival, there was one brewery my friends touted as the likely surprise hit: Funky Buddha.
I had never heard of Funky Buddha before, which isn’t...
Port Wipeout IPA
Port Brewing Co.
San Marcos, CA
Wipeout IPA
7.0% ABV
Port Brewing isn’t a brewery I’m too familiar with or well-versed in. I was able to try their Anniversary Ale a few months ago and was pretty impressed, so during my recent trip to Atlanta, I stocked up on some of their offerings, including Old/Older Viscosity, the Mongo DIPA and their standard, the Wipeout IPA.
Coming in at...
1 tag
Brewvival 2012: Bigger, Better, Drunker
For the third year, COAST Brewing Co. and the Charleston Beer Exchange hosted the Charleston Brevival at the brewery located in North Charleston, SC. With South Carolina lacking any major notable beer festivals, the folks at COAST and CBX joined together to invite brewers from across the country to bring out their biggest and best for a daylong party.
The festival, held in a field across from...
2 tags
Founders Imperial Stout
Founders Brewing Co.
Grand Rapids, MI
Imperial Stout
10.5% ABV
I’m off from work today prepping my body, mind and liver for Brewvival, but with some major storms moving through South Carolina today I figured my only option for the day was to be a hermit and chill inside. Of course, it’s best to have a beer that matches the weather.
Some quick background: A few years ago - before...
2 tags
From SD to SC: Green Flash Launches in South...
As previously mentioned, Green Flash Brewing Co. out of San Diego, CA, launched in South Carolina this week. The brewery has started a slow rollout in the Southeast recently, with Georgia getting their own big debut about a week ago. The brewery has held launch events throughout the state all week, starting in Greenville and the Upstate Wednesday, Columbia and the Midlands Thursday and ending with...
Dogfish Head Chicory Stout
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
Milton, DE
Chicory Stout
5.2% ABV
Maybe it’s the fact that Dogfish Head beers are sold everywhere in South Carolina except the area I live, but whenever I have the chance to buy DFH beers - old or new - I never miss out. For whatever reason, it’s one of those breweries that elicits one of two responses: an outpouring of adoration or raw, seething anger. I...
1 tag
Here in a (Green) Flash
It’s always exciting when a new brewery launches in South Carolina, especially one I’ve heard a lot of good things about located on the opposite side of the country.
Today, Green Flash Brewing Co. out of San Diego, CA begins selling their wares to South Carolinians. As it is with most new releases, they’ll hit the Upstate and coastal markets today and make their way to the...
2 tags
Red Brick HopLanta
Red Brick Brewing Co.
Atlanta, GA
HopLanta India Pale Ale
6.7% ABV
Being a Georgia boy at heart (and by birth), I’m very partial to all the great beer and breweries coming out of the Peach State, with SweetWater, Terrapin and JailHouse being my favorites. Each puts out solid and increasingly good products. But one brewery, Red Brick, has always fallen a bit flat for me.
It’s not...
2 tags
SweetWater Dank Tank 420 India Pale Ale
SweetWater Brewing Company
Atlanta, GA
Dank Tank India Pale Ale
8.5% ABV
In my previous post, I mentioned that A) SweetWater’s Dank Tank series gets increasingly better with each new experimental batch and B) their 420 Pale was my gateway beer. So it should be no surprise that I was really excited about their new Dank Tank entry: a full-fledged IPA version of the 420.
From the start,...
2 tags
21st Amendment Bitter American
21st Amendment Brewing
San Francisco, CA
Bitter American Extra Pale Ale
4.4% ABV
Being in South Carolina, 21st Amendment is just out of our reach for us beer geeks. (Georgia is the only state they distribute to in the Southeast.) So when the opportunity arises to try one of their delicious brews, I hop - no pun intended - at the chance.
I had the chance to try Back in Black and Brew Free...
3 tags
SweetWater: The one that started it all
For me, it all started with SweetWater. In 2007, when South Carolina first dropped its law against selling “high gravity” beers - “high grav” meaning those with an ABV of more than 5% - the state was flooded with craft breweries. I tried a few here and there that I enjoyed, but nothing that really grabbed me from the start. That was, until I had my first SweetWater 420. Maybe I...
2 tags
So, here's the deal ...
Beer has become a passion of mine during the past few years, as it has for a lot of other people. It goes beyond just coming home after a day at work and cracking open a cold one. It’s knowing that what I’m drinking was labored over and perfected, crafted carefully by people who really love their jobs. It’s knowing that someone really put all their heart into something....
