Charleston?

Westbrook, COAST, House of Brews, Charleston Beer Exchange, Total Wine, Bottles, Closed For Business

 

They're the best brewery in the state and one of the best breweries in the world.

 

Edmund's Oast!!

 

How many of the world's great brewing nations have you visited?

 

Craftsmen Kitchen and Tap House always has good stuff on draft and great food. Closed for Business is a must, as is Westbrook. The Bar at Husk (mostly a cocktail destination but sometimes they have really interesting beers there). Southend Brewery a block away from the Harbor and the Market. Frothy Beard Brewing. If you have some spare time and wanna venture out a little bit, check out Coast and Holy City in N. Charleston (about a 20 min drive or so)

 

Trolls seem to follow me everywhere I go. I don't mind groupies and fans.

 

I'm sure this is true but just wondering what you've read that's been negative?

FWIW, just had a friend who runs a beer store here in Roanoke travel down there. He visited it and was blown away, said he had a great time etc.

 

All around the world?

 

I wouldn't go that far. I don't think they've been around long enough or make enough of a depth of different styles to be considered one of the best in the world. They do make great beer, though, I'll give you that.

 

Unless Southend has changed a LOT, the beers are mediocre-to-poor. Coast rocks. Westbrook rocks. Haven't been to Frothy Beard, but they were at Brewvival this year, and their peppermint porter was amazing.

 

Definitely hit up the various breweries: Westbrook, Coast, Freehouse, Holy City, Revelry, Palmetto, Frothy Beard and come up with your own opinions. South End stuff is worse than mediocre home brew so I recommend against it. There are plenty of Charleston area locals here (referring to both the city of Charleston and Charleston county residents) on BA to give you good advice. House of Brews is great, Edmund's Oast, Closed for business, Charleston Beerworks and the list goes on.

 

You can look at Westbrook's website to see what they have on tap in their tasting room. It's a pretty small space. They don't have a ton of taps, but one-offs rotate through pretty regularly and you'll sometimes find Stillwater or Evil Twin beers on. I don't know exactly what you're looking for out of a tasting room other than that. I guess if you wanted 100 taps of barrel-aged variants of Gose, you're probably going to be disappointed.

 

I haven't been impressed with their service since Mike was pouring beers. We'd go in at 5 on Friday and be the only two people there.
The tasting room is sterile and unimpressive. Not sure what I'd do differently if I had a blank check, but for atmosphere, I'd prefer every other brewery in town. I like all of Westbrook's core beers a lot, but I've thought their one offs and anniversary beers have been average.
As a "local", I'm going to Coast to hang out on a Saturday. They're doing great beers, almost always perfect to style. Between One Claw and Dead Arm, I've had a good summer so far. Nevermind the vintage Blackbeerd Coast has been tapping for the past few months.

 

They haven't changed. They will continue to pump out mediocre beer until their owners sell the place.
If you are looking at must visit beer places in Charleston, Edmunds Oast is at the top of the list. Coast and Westbrook are the top breweries.

 

I have to call bullshit on those reviews. There isn't a snobby person working in the tap room. The people that have been there the longest are down to earth normal people. Teachers, students, and just laid back friendly folks. It does get busy at random times, so occasionally they are understaffed. Don't listen to yelp.