Hi All. I am from Delaware and am very familiar and knowledgeable of the breweries in the PA, DE, MD area but am traveling 95 South to Charleston SC and will be coming back on a Monday. I was looking for that must visit brewery (tasting room) that is on the way home. I guess it could be a brew pub but I just want it to be worth it. I probably won't ever make a drive like this again. I would normally fly. Any suggestions? Only issue is they have to be open on a Monday. I know Charleston has breweries and we will hit those but I was looking for a real special stop on our long trip home.
Stop at Mekong in Richmond. At this point Mekong is just a restaurant (brewpub to come, am i right?), but just go there and thank me later. If you MUST hit an actual brewery, there appears to be Mother Earth and Duck Rabbit in NC and Hardywood in Richmond.
95 is kind of no-mans land in SC, NC, and VA until you get up to Richmond and into DC. Not really a lot in the area. Florence, Fayetteville, and Rocky Mount are pretty much the only towns you hit and none of them are exactly known for their breweries. Duck Rabbit is 30 minutes off the interstate and Mother Earth is almost an hour. Seems like a pretty long detour on what will already be a pretty long drive. Hardywood would be a very good stop as they put out some pretty awesome beer. Unfortunately I'm fairly certain they're closed on Mondays (so says their website, I've never been to the brewery). Mekong would definitely be awesome to hit. Its on my list of places to go and I just haven't made it yet (don't exactly make it to Richmond very often). I'd say your best options are: - Mekong (though not a brewery) - Mad Fox Brewing (depending on how you traverse DC, this is somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes out of the way) - Port City (Alexandria, again depending on your route this is between 5 and 20 minutes out of the way, though in a different direction than Mad Fox) - Some other DC brewery (DC Brau, Right Proper, maybe? Haven't been to either of them though I know plenty of people like their beer, so they're doing something right) Unfortunately, once you get outside of Charleston, I95 is kind of a beer no-go zone until you get to Richmond.
Right Proper and DC Brau are both going to be closed on Monday. And I wouldn't send him/her into the heatr of DC on a SC to DE road trip. That would quite possibly eat away more time than the aforementioned Duck Rabbit or Mother Earth idea (plus the city driving would be more of a headache/hassle, especially at certain times on a Monday). Port City and Mad Fox would make easier alternatives to DC Brau and Right Proper, albeit with slightly inferior beer, imo. Port City opens at 4 on Monday Mad Fox at 11am. Mad Fox is a brewpub (decent food), Port City a tasting room. They're in opposite directions on the Beltway, so you'd probably have to choose one. Also, the Heavy Seas Taproom in Halethorpe, MD off of the Baltimore Beltway is an option. But not a Monday option.
Thanks very much. I think Mad Fox looks good. Mekong doesn't show any pics on their website. To add to my questions, if we are heading down to Charleston on a Thursday, what then would you recommend for must visit? We are returning on a Monday. Also, once we get to Charleston, I heard Holy City Brewing was great. Any others we must visit while staying there the weekend? Westbrook? Coast?
Westbrook, COAST, (mianly these two) and Freehouse and Revelry would all take strong priority over HC for me. HC has a good atmosphere, likeable brewers but their beer just isnt anything special in my opinion.
If you're picking Mad Fox over Mekong, you're making a mistake. Mad Fox has decent pub food, and they make their own beer, which ranges from fair to good (imo). No guest beers, as far as I recall. Mekong has the best Asian food in Richmond (selected by a number of sources), and one of the best draft lists I've ever seen (and I travel quite a bit). It really is a slam dunk.
The ONLY thing that Mad Fox has over Mekong is that they brew their own stuff. Some guys are really into that, including me at times. Sometimes I really just want to drink something that the place brewed. But yeah, Mekong should absolutely be the top choice. I guess I didn't note the giant gap between Mekong and Mad Fox on my ranking above It sounds weird that a random asian restaurant in Richmond has a ton of beer, but its from friends of mine that have gone, its one of the best beer restaurants in the region. There's a reason they've been rated as the Best Beer Bar in the region three times by craftbeer.com ... Holy City is good, but if you go to Charleston and don't go to Westbrook, and to a very slightly lesser extent COAST, you have done it wrong...
I am heading to Charleston for my second time ever Friday. Very excited to visit Westbrook. I've never had any of their beers.
In North Carolina go west. Just make another trip of it, and use 360 out of Richmond, heading south through beautiful old historic territory ( 360 to 58 to 29) to Greensboro, I-40 to Winston-Salem, 52 to Charlotte, and just find a way up to Asheville. It's a great old route.
