Craft Beer Quest on Vacation
My wife and I have been in Myrtle Beach for the last week. The place we have rented is very nice, right on the beach and the weather has mostly been perfect for relaxing in the sunshine. Its a much needed rest for the both of us after a very hectic fall, winter and spring. Being the beer lover that I am, one of my favorite things to do while traveling on vacation is to sample some of the regional beer offerings. It is also nice to see a different selection of brewers that have not made it to Vermont yet. I have written before about the relatively small number of different beers available to our small state and, in fact, the largest beer store in Vermont (The Beverage Warehouse: Vermont’s Best Place to Buy Beer), who claims to sell every beer available in Vermont only offers about 850 different beers. While that may sound like a lot, I am certain that it pales in comparison to what many of you have available to you. It also means that for Vermont-based on-line Ratebeer “collectors” (I am rapidly approaching my 1,000th rating… more about that in a future article), we have to seek beer elsewhere in order to continue to add to our collection.
So that brings us back to Myrtle Beach and the vacation quest for new and different craft beers. I had already heard from some of my fellow HopPress writers and from other craft beer drinkers that Myrtle Beach was a “craft beer desert”; virtually devoid of any significant amounts of craft beer. I will have to tell you that from my initial explorations here, that might be true for those that aren’t willing to work a little bit to expose what offerings that there are. I thought that it might be interesting for some of you to outline the process that my wife and I went through to find the craft beer oases in this craft beer desert.
I have worked with computers for a living for about 30 years and I firmly believe that coupled with the Internet, Google truly does know “everything”; that’s a good thing in this case. A quick search for breweries on the Ratebeer site and on Google found only one local commercial brewery (New South Brewing Company) and a few brewpubs spread out along the 60 mile “Grand Strand” that makes up the greater Myrtle Beach area.
Two of the brewpubs, T-Bonz (New South makes their beer) and Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery (who makes their own beer) were easy enough to find as they were located in major restaurants and heavily advertised locally. We visited both of these establishments (both owned by the T-Bonz Restaurant Group) and had very good meals at both of them. Both of them also offered one of my favorite things when trying out a new beer “joint”… a sampler rack of beers… a cheap and effective way to sample a larger number of new beers without getting too smashed in the process. Over the course of a couple of visits I was able to sample all six beers that each brewpub was currently offering… 12 new beers, a really nice boost to my beer collection.
I had learned previously that South Carolina beer laws do not allow tasting rooms at breweries, so we did not bother to seek out the actual brewery itself. Our only option to taste their beers, other than at T-Bonz, was to find bars serving their beer or stores selling their beers. As it turns out, neither of those was an easy process. Since we needed groceries anyway, we surveyed two of the largest grocery stores in the immediate area (a SuperWalMart and a Food Lion) hoping to find a variety of regional beers. We did find just a couple; hidden in amongst the stacks and stacks of a large variety of AB-InBev products, which dominate this beer marketplace, but found no New South or any other South Carolina beers in the selections at either place.
Our quest then turned to local beer stores. Again, using Google and Ratebeer, we were able to locate one place in particular (Green’s) that seemed like it would carry what we were seeking. We visited this store and found a good variety of craft beers, many of them from brewers that do not sell in Vermont. I am like a “kid in a candy shop” when it comes to good beer stores and spent way too much money gathering up some “prizes” to take home with me. While there were plenty of good beers here, they did not carry any of New South’s beers or any other beers from South Carolina… puzzling, at best.
There are quite a number of beer stores located up and down the main thoroughfare, but visiting each one of them would be time consuming and, really, driving around in a car is not what I came to Myrtle Beach for. My wife had the great idea of calling New South to see if they could tell us where we might find their beer. The gentleman that she spoke with was very nice and quite helpful. He first explained that they only began putting their beer into cans last November, so quantities, even in the local area, were pretty limited. That helped to explain our difficulty in finding their beer in stores. He then went on to tell us about a local bar and another grocery that he was sure would carry their products.
The bar that he referenced, Bully’s, just happened to be in the same Barefoot Landing complex as the T-Bonz restaurant/brewpub, so that made for an efficient trip for both dinner and a chance to sample some different beers. Bully’s, as it turns out, had about 30 taps going with a very wide variety of beers from all over, both domestic and foreign, and including a couple of Vermont beers, which I was very happy to see. They did, in fact, have one New South beer on tap; their White Ale, which was pretty good. Our original mission to find a New South beer was now accomplished. Bully’s also had a couple of New Belgium beers (not available in VT) on tap and I had a chance to try their excellent Ranger IPA.
The grocery store (Lowes Foods) turned out to be a bit more of a trip, but well worth it. They carried a much bigger variety of craft beers than we had seen at the other groceries (and less of the AB-InBev stuff). They also offered a “singles” selection as well as a small selection of 22oz and 750ml bottled beers. We were able to find a large number of North and South Carolina beers. Again, I spent too much, but I just can’t pass up those “prizes”.
From beginning to end the process above took us about 7 days. A beer quest is not the primary focus of our vacation here in Myrtle Beach, but it does add, for me, an additional amount of pleasure and excitement. We are here for just a few more days before heading north again. There are still a couple more places that we could check out, but quite honestly, I have spent plenty of my vacation on this fun project and it is really time to focus more on the beach and the sunshine. Our trip home could be another matter though, as we plan to make several stops along the way. Those stops, of course, will present opportunities for more beer adventures. Gosh, I hope I have room in the car for all the beer!
12 Comments to “Craft Beer Quest on Vacation”
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Steve, thanks for visiting our store in Myrtle Beach and the nice review of our beer line up. We try hard to have an “interesting” variety that highlights out local brewers.
Best Regards,
Steve Hall
It was my pleasure to visit Lowes Foods… the selection of beer was just what I was looking for.
Cheers!
–Steve K (VTHopHead)
Timing couldn’t be better for us on this one. We Just arrived in North Myrtle Beach (on vacation from Pittsburgh, PA) yesterday. This is our third year here and we continue to try find local places to get craft beers.
One site I found this year was http://www.myrtlebeachcraftbeer.com/ which is a local homebrew club that lists some “hot spots” to get craft beer, and has started a “Craft Beer Cooperative” in Myrtle Beach.
Thanks again for the article, we will definitely have to try Bully’s. There is also supposed to be a place in Murrell’s Inlet, I just don’t recall the name.
One question, which Lowes Food did you go to?
I found the “myrtlebeachcraftbeer” site yesterday afternoon… lots of good information. We plan to check out the Piggly Wiggly at Market Common later today… looks like a great bottle collection and they also fill growlers!
We also heard from a “local” that the “Mellow Mushroom” pizza restaurant in Myrtle Beach (21st Street near Broadway at the Beach) has a “bunch” of taps. We will head there after visiting “The Pig”.
Thanks for reading… Cheers!
–Steve K (VTHopHead)
I’m a local who is a member of the home brewing side of myrtlebeachcraftbeer.com, and I was just going to mention Piggly Wiggly. There, as well as Green’s, are where I tend to go around town.
It’s important to note that a bill is in the process of being ratified so that SC brewers can give samples at the brewery, as well as sell (I think) four growlers, or one case of beer per person. I believe once this is signed into law that New South will start doing tours and tastings.
I also cannot recommend highly enough Charleston Beer Exchange if you ever find yourself in Charleston, SC. It’s an absolute beer mecca for true beer lovers, and they have a “Rare Beer Tuesday” every week where they offer growler fills of something you probably won’t find anywhere without a true stroke of luck! It’s a two hour drive from Myrtle Beach to Charleston, so I always end up looking at what they’re tapping and sighing that I wish I could be there.
Also, if you are in Charleston, look for beer from Coast. They’re a Charleston based brewery, and I enjoy their stuff. They’re been proponents of the SC bill to allow craft brewers to give samples and sell their beer directly to the public, and they’ve been posting about how excited they are to start doing tours soon.
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Thanks for the good information. I found your Web site informative and easy to use. I might include the Lowes Foods store to your list of places for people to check out. Those three places clearly had the bulk of the craft beer I was able to find (I came home with plenty!).
Charleston will be on a future list of places to check out when we return to the area another time. While not that far away, it looked to be further than we wanted to venture this time around.
This was our first visit to the Myrtle Beach area and we enjoyed our visit a lot.
Thanks for your comment…
–Steve K (VTHopHead)
[...] few months ago, fellow Hop-arazzi member Steve wrote about “Craft Beer on Vacation” and I think fairly represented the feelings of us craft beer lovers well. When I travel, [...]