chuckography

Two Sets of Three...so far

Some know that I started growing a beard last year.

Movember to be exact. That's the month that a mustache is grown to show support for a worthy cause - awareness of men's health issues.

If you have not seen my moustache AND beard, here is a photo of what it looks like.

No, not really.

That actually is me standing behind a cut out of the distinctive photo on the label of a popular beer made by Holy City Brewing Company.

It is called Chucktown Follicle Brown and the cut-out that beckons you to poke your face through is at the brewery on Dorchester Road.

This was one of the three places visited Saturday on another rousing, brave but cheerful, Brewery Mini-Crawl.

There are several other clusters I plan to visit.

Cheerful because it was time to visit a trio of craft beer-making places.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and my camera and I were among happy, cheerful people, chugging some fine tasting beers.

Looks like some breweries serve food so children are allowed to be there.

I saw lots of families enjoying an offbeat pre-Easter outing.

To wisely sample the offerings of many beers it pays to be sensible.

At each place, I looked over the menu and selected four small "samples" of the brewmaster's product by a particular brewing company.

Moderation in moderation.

Here I chose 2 dark stout and porter beers and two lighter ones:
Notorious Hen, an American Porter with a BBQ Rub; Fancy Stout with sweetteeth caramel added; Smells Like Rick, bourbon barrel aged and Kate the Great, red wine barrel aged.

While sipping and tasting, I saw a lady with a 4-glass flight, taking a sip of each glass in rotation so all four were now half-filled.

Hmm. Kind of defeating the whole tasting concept.

Might as well pour all four mixed together in a pint glass!

Looking to my right I saw a colorful, catchy mural by the artist Patch Whisky.

There was a sizable crowd this afternoon at the bar and I could not avoid having a man's head included in the lower left of the mural.

Not my best ever use of the clone app of Photoshop, but I did try to eliminate the fellow. If you can't see what I did there, I am sure the artist would have issues.

Let's just not tell him and keep this among ourselves. Thanks. Whew.

Hoping the get a view of the Ashley River before sunset, we headed over to nearby one-year-old FreeHouse Brewing Company.

 Known for its nice deck, picnic tables and spectacular sunsets on the river, it also prides itself on producing all organic craft brews.

Our friendly bartender showed a Thursday sunset photo she had phone snapped and I recalled it had
been a cloudy sky which usually adds bright colors to the end of the day.

Looking out past the tall, silvery beer vats and the bar, I saw it was a lackluster kind of sky so just sat at the bar and tried a 4-glass flight.

The organic beers I sipped included a Green Door IPA, the HooDoo Imperial Stout, Lucky Oyster Stout and a Battery Brown Ale.

These four 4 oz glasses held enough to really savor the taste, yet kept total consumption to a minimum.

Being an older native Charlestonian, I can remember when the Fox Music store was downtown on the corner of King and Beaufain Streets.

My 1950s high school buddies and I would go in to browse the vinyl records.

Then we'd select one or two albums and walk down the squeaky wood floor, enter one of several glass enclosed booths and play the record on a turntable. Some dancing often happened.

I had left town by the time it closed and moved out to 3005 West Montague Avenue.

Part of their building in the back was used to store pianos but, after a lot of work, that space was opened three weeks ago as the Rusty Bull Brewing Company, in Suite 110.

I peeked through the window in the front door and stepped in to be part of the "soft opening."

The Official grand opening is set for May 6. I like one of their slogans:"We make it. You drink it."


I chatted with the two Co-Founders, heavy-bearded Ben Mayer and Brian Bogstad. 

As usual, I ordered a flight so I could sample some but, instead of four, a fifth was added.

As the menu board on the wall behind the bar stated, right now they only make five offerings so they threw in the 5th to give me ALL of today's taste options!

Here is a shot of the menu on the wall of beers offered but many more will be added by the May 6 Grand Opening, Ben assured me.


Reason enough for me to swing by again. And again.

I saw something new being offered at these breweries.

I was used to seeing a large dark colored glass 64-oz Growler that can be filled and sealed (no open container in your car).

The new item is a Crowler. a 32-oz metal container that is sealed with a flip-top so you can conveniently - and legally -  take two pints home.

Currently, they are closed Sunday and Monday, but that is subject to change.

(Click on the images and links for more details.)

This is only the second mini-Brewery Crawl. As more are added, this could turn into a long-term writing odyssey!

That would be cool.

Labels: Brewery mini-Crawl, Chucktown Follicle Brown, FREEHOUSE Organic Beer, Growlers and Crawlers., Holy City Brewing Company, Rusty Bull

posted by chuckography @ 10:27 PM