Beer on the Beach: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

From the Northwest to the Midwest and into the South. This week I'm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

When it comes to craft brewing the south is still fairly spare especially away from the main cities. At the beach there is really only one game in town, New South Brewing Company.

This posts covers the beers sampled over a couple of days.  First at the Liberty Tap Room and then samples during a tour of the actual brewery.  I'll get more into the Liberty Tap room in a future post; for now I will just say this.  If you like beer and your in the Myrtle Beach area, this is your destination.  On the New South Brewing Company.

New South Brewing Company, Myrtle Beach SC.

New South doesn't have a pub on sight, rather they sell kegs to local restaurant and can the rest for sale directly to local customers.  They do run fairly regular tours.  They take an hour or so and they give out a few samples of the beer they have on tap.  Currently on the menu during my visit were:

New South IPA and White Ale

New South White Ale: A beer inspired by Blue Moon, or at least remarkably similar to it. There is a marked difference in the aroma, it contains a lot more of the tropical fruit Belgian yeast characteristics. Flavor is sweeter with wheat bread flavor and a slight amount of citrus with a fizzy mouthfeel.

Bourbon barrel aged Porter. Sweet fruity aroma mixed with whiskey. The flavor is not too heavy on the flavors from the barrel and mixes well with the chocolate, cherry and coffee. Finishes slightly dry and bitter.

New South Brown Ale: Pretty simple flavor profile. There are lots of coffee and chocolate in the aroma and in the flavor. This one also finishes with a load of English bitter hops.  It's that kind of bitter that you really don't taste in the profile as much as you feel it in the aftertaste.

I sampled the following beers at the Liberty Tap Room:

New South IPA: The aroma of this IPA has lemon grass, grass and pine hops filling it. The flavor has a lot if malt to back it up... one could even argue that it is too much. Herbal and pine hops come through at the end with a dry bitter finish that reminds me of an English IPA.

New South Stout

New South Stout:  This was the current seasonal selection from the brewery.  Sweet roasted grain and chocolate aroma.  Full-bodied and creamy mouthfeel with the typical chocolate, coffee flavors.  Like most of New South's brews it also ended with a strange bitter flavor at the end of the palate.  It works fine with most of their beers, but I don't really like that quality in a stout.

New South Red Ale: Floral hop aroma.  Starts off with sweet caramel on the palate before a load of pine and floral hops really hits.  Maybe a little hoppy for the style, but pretty good overall.

I'm actually stranded in the South for a good amount of time for the next few weeks.  It is proving to be quite a learning experience all around.
Cheers!