Last night we decided to get out of the house and go visit Holy City Brewing. Fun trip. Holy City is a local micro-brewery, and when I say micro-brewery I mean it. This is basically a part time four man operation in North Charleston. They started the business this year after experimenting with some home brewing and cobbled systems. If you visit their website you can check out their first rig that was made with aluminum beer barrels and bicycle parts. Yeah, you read that right.
So we drove up 26 and got off at exit 215 and drove down Dorchester Road. About a mile down Dorchester (4155 Dorchester to be exact) we saw a sign for the brewery. But there wasn’t a window or door sign on the front building, so we had to enter this sort of post-modern industrial park. We’re seeing car repair, boat parts laying around, and lots of non-retail sorta stuff.
The fermenting/aging tanks
But then in the back we see this flapping Stars and Stripes and finally a Holy City sign. We’ve arrived. Now the place is not fancy in any sense of the word, but you can see these guys are pursuing their passion and starting their business. Yeah, it’s the back end of a warehouse, but so what? It works. I don’t think anyone in a tuxedo is coming back here anyway.
So we walk in and the first thing we see are the fermenting tanks. I may have this terminology wrong, feel free to correct me.
And then we look to one side and see the bar and a pool table.
We step up and order a tasting. Now the tastings here cost five bucks and you get samples of whatever they have on tap. No refills, no sitting around really. This isn’t Cheers, and they don’t have a full license to sell more than tastings and growlers on premises, and they’re only open from 4-6 on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 4 to 7 on WTF. A tour is a must, if only to see where they started and where they are now.
Taste test. Dee Lish
Oh, and the future is being delivered soon. They have new tanks coming in which will about double their capacity. Holy City can be purchased on tap at a bunch of bars around Charleston and the vicinity.
We (Deb and I) tasted five different beers last night – a Holy City Pilsner, a Pluff Mud Porter, a Bowens Island Oyster Stout, a Pecan Dream and a Vienna Lager. I liked all of them. Deb’s not a beer drinker, but she also liked (a bit) the porter and found the Pecan Dream “nutty”
An alternative place to quench your thirst?
One thing we liked was seeing the dog dishes on the floor. At least we assumed they were dog dishes. Perhaps some of the patrons like drinking on the floor better than at the bar.. If you’re interested in home brewing you can check out this book
at amazon or this website, or check out the kit below..
it was good to have a night out. It was a night out, they were to remember…for a long time. (woops, sorry, Rocky Horror slipped in there.) We finished off the evening picking up some sushi and salads from Earth Fare and watched a little telly (roku) when we got home.
