Charleston's 5th brewery

I've been hearing murmurs for a couple years, but don't know anything you haven't read from Timmons.

 

I had an experimental jalapeno pale ale at a buddy's going away party back in July and chatted about beer for a few hours with the guy from Frothy Beard. I can't remember what his name was but quite a friendly fellow, and the beer was great.

I think a few more breweries are sustainable, but I don't want this to turn out to be the Miami condo market or the Austin food truck scene where the market gets so over saturated.

 

3-4 years ago, I would've guessed it would've been Palmetto on death row. Doing 1 serviceable, 2 sub-par and 1 terrible beer is not a sustainable business plan in a market with even a semi-educated populace. However, they clearly have the capacity to improve themselves (whether from necessity or desire, don't know - don't care), so they're dug in like an alabama tick (without 40mm shells to disgorge them).

If a chs brewery will fail in the next few years, it'll be one that hasn't opened yet.

 

I agree. Palmetto Amber was my gateway into craft beer 10 years ago. Then they stopped delivering to Columbia and limited their distribution to the Lowcountry only for a bit.

I appreciate what they do, it's beer that has a good story, but they don't do much outside of that. No one-offs, rarely have any new or special beers (Ginger Slap, Expresso Nitro) and no real brewery events to speak of don't really provide the spark that I would expect from the only brewery that is downtown (and if anyone says Southend counts, we will never see eye to eye). I'm not saying you have to put out a Boy King or house a gypsy brewer in Mt. P, but gimme something new every now and then. As upper King becomes more developed, I would hope that they could expand their area, have a nice tap room and maybe have more weekly events.

If you take that in contrast with Westbrook, Holy City or COAST, they just don't blow it out of the water.

 

If you think the amber was the serviceable one, maybe you are a communist. jk.

In my opinion it was the porter, even before they went the coffee route. The fact that I'll drink it despite not drinking coffee is quite the compliment, even if it's not noteworthy.

Short of a cushy job at pearlstein, I doubt you could convince me to give the watermelon one another try. I helped Mike pour it at the the initial Brewvival for a couple hours, and still haven't atoned for my sins.

 

Frothy Beard has been in the works for a couple of years, they finally signed a lease on some warehouse space (off of Ashley Phosphate) this week. Michael, Joey, and Steve (who is or was working at C4B) are great guys and really good homebrewers (in terms of the scale they'd been working with thus far).

As far as immediate plans, opening date, flagships, etc., I've got no info to offer. I'd recommend liking their FB and hopefully details will start to roll in soon.

http://www.facebook.com/FrothyBeardBrewing?fref=ts

 

I'm no expert on the Charleston beer scene, but I have to think the city's large tourism industry helps Palmetto. I remember having the Amber at Hyman's before I was really into craft beer (and yes, I know Hyman's is a tourist trap, which is kind of my point).

 

Of course, being the only game in town for at least a dozen years probably didn't hurt.

 

Do vikings joke about drinking?

 

I'm all in favor for all teachers getting an 8oz pour at lunch. The bullshit they go through to teach kids is amazing.

 

I am definitely no expert on the CHS beer scene but from what I understand the reason Palmetto has not done any one offs is because they did not have the capacity. They just upgraded to larger tanks to fill their demand for the basic stuff with the intention of brewing some new beers. At least that is what Chris @ Palmetto explained to me.

Frothy Beard is now open... I am going this afternoon to give them a try - I will report back after the tasting...

 

Wow, this is an old thread.

 

Went to Frothy Beard today. Had a few really good beers. Coffee porter was pretty good as was the pale Ale. Had a taste of their Watermelon Wheat from the fermenter and it was delicious. Really nice folks that work there also! And a ping pong table. Great place to hang out for a while for sure.

 

Someone needs to introduce cask ale to Charleston. It fits the city so perfectly. By the way, I like Palmetto too both Amber and their Lager.

 

Cool, keep me posted.