Visiting Charleston this month

You do realize you can search the inventory of any Total Wine on their website, right? Mexican Cake is not a year round beer nor is it a shelf turd. You can probably get the gose though.

It seems odd to take a trip to Charleston with no car and stay some place out of the downtown area. We're headed to Charleston in Match and the Fermentory, Edmunds Oast, and Westbrook are on our hit list. But we'll have car.

 

You won't have any trouble getting around with Uber. Unfortunately you won't find any Mexican Cake at this point unless you set up a trade. If you are willing to spend the money you can drink one at Westbrook on site. Make sure and hit up Charles Towne Fermentory and Edmunds Oast.

 

The buses run all over and are $2 and 50 cents for a transfer. Run about every hour. Take the 30 at the stop outside the Fermentory to the visitors center then, I think, the 102 To Edmunds Oast Brewing and the Workshop. Or one of the three free downtown DASH Bus routes to Craftsman Kitchen, etc. Then use Uber to home in on other places or for getting back late. There’s also a new bike rental program called Holy Spokes. Sign up, rent a bike at a hub, ride across town and leave it at another hub.

 

CTF is awesome and worth a night.

Bars:
1. Craftsmen Kitchen downtown
2. Craft Conundrum
3. Kudu Coffee and Craft always has something unique on and great coffee as well.
4. Closed for Business

Breweries:
1. CTF
2. Edmund's O
3. Westbrook

Be careful and check hours. Some of breweries aren't open certain days and when they are, it's 4pm +.

 

Re: Mexican Cake.

You won't be able to find it on the shelf at Total Wine or really anywhere. Your best bet is paying for a vintage at Westbrook. A 2016 of regular cake will probably be $35-45 dollars. You might try posting an ISO in the IP trading group. I personally would skip the regular cake and go for a variant and split it with a buddy. A tequila or bourbon barrel aged cake is probably around $75 from last years. However, I get plenty of regular cake so it isn't that crazy important to me.

 

When is Mexican Cake usually released?

 

First / second week of May.

 

Bump

 

Hope you have an awesome trip! Charleston is a great city. Here are my suggestions:

Breweries:
Charles Towne Fermentory is a must, and getting their via Uber shouldn't be a problem.

Westbrook is worth checking out and will certainly have some good offerings on tap, but they don't typically have food trucks/live music, etc at the taproom if that's your thing (though they do sometimes). The brewery is about a 15 minute drive from downtown in Mount Pleasant. If you do head out that way and want to make another stop or two, I'd recommend House of Brews (see below) and Two Blokes Brewing.

Edmund's Oast is another must-stop place. They have two locations - a brewpub on Morrison Drive, and a new production brewery on King Street. Both are great spots, but if I had to pick, I'd recommend the brewpub, which has ~45 beers on tap (several of which are their own), along with a stellar food menu. It is also located right next to Edmund's Oast Exchange (see bottle shops below), and near several other popular Charleston restaurants & watering holes.

Beer Bars:
House of Brews - also in Mount Pleasant. Laid back space, great beer selection. Definitely worth the trip.

Craftsmen Kitchen & Tap House has a pretty impressive bottle selection, but if you want anything that is remotely hard to get a hold of, be prepared to shell out for it. That said, they do typically have some great beers to offer. Treat yo self.

Bottle Shops:
Personally, I wouldn't waste my time going to Total Wine. You're far better off hunting for bottles and cans at either Edmund's Oast Exchange (on Morrison Drive, next to the brewpub - definitely worth a trip), or House of Brews in Mount Pleasant.

Hope that helps. Feel free to give me a shout if you have any other questions. Enjoy your time in Charleston!

 

I don’t meant to hijack the thread, but if anyone has any recommendations on some good hole in the wall restaurants to hit, I’d love to hear about them. They don’t necessarily have to be beer centric. Just looking for a few good places for breakfast, lunch, or late night snacking. My wife and I will be there over St Patrick’s Day weekend, and we already have dinner reservations for each night we’re there: Edmund’s Oast, McCrady’s Restaurant, McCrady’s Tavern (for brunch), and Napa Mount Pleasant. Thanks for any help in advance!

 

Off the top of my head some of our regular stops in addition to many of the usual beer oriented suspects, sort of Hole in the Wall and/or good food.

EVO, Lewis BBQ, Tattooed Moose, Goat, Sheep, Cow, The Alley, Closed For Business, Monza, Bon Bahn Mi, The Griffin, Blind Tiger, Taco Boy, Pearlz (for happy hour), Leon’s, Raw167, Darling Oyster Bar, Moe’s Crosstown, Hominy Grill, Salty Mike’s (the hole in the wallest bar), Variety Store, Queen Street Grocery, Caviar and Bananas, Glazed, Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits, Brown’s Court Bakery. Haven’t been to Little Jack’s, Workshop or Cigar Factory yet but they’re on our to do list. There’s a bunch more but those are the usual stops.

 

This is a solid list. Lewis, Monza, Griffin, Leons and Moes are great. Moes is a hole in the wall bar with a decent draft list (though small) with good burgers and brunch. Browns Court is a great bakery and I go weekly. I like rarebit too and it has draft moscow mules.

 

I've always enjoyed visiting Holy City Brewing and if your there you can check out Freehouse Brewery and Pawleys Island Brewing Company. If its nice you could uber to one and walk to the other 2, but could certainly uber to all.

Not sure the days you will be visiting but Holy City opens earlier than the other 2 and is the only one with food (the others may have food trucks, but did not when i was there).

 

King St is the very popular for shopping, the mrs loves it!

Would definitely check out the bar at Husk for a drink, The Macintosh and FIG for dinner, and Caviar & Bananas for breakfast/lunch and Teds Butcher Block and Gaulart & Malicer for lunch.

Also give Untapped a go when in town, you may find Mexican Cake lurking about.

 

FYI King street is good for shopping but not the section that EO brewing and the exchange are on. Most of the shopping is on lower king south of calhoun street. EO brewing and the exchange are on upper upper king.

Holy City and Westbrook are pretty far apart so you might want to pick one. Closed For Business is on king street a little up from Calhoun and it has a decent tap list.

 

If a a quick brewery walking tour is what you seek, Edmunds Oast Brewing, Munkle, Fatty's, and Cooper River are all bunched together and super easy to walk between all 4.

 

If no one has mentioned it, I highly recommend Commonhouse Aleworks as the kid on the block brewery! It is in Park Circle, N Charleston, which is a hop skip and a jump from downtown!