Daily Archives: February 11, 2013

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February 11, 2013

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Westbrook announces Brewvival offerings; Holy City expands selection

Brewvival

We’re just 12 days away from Brewvival 2013, and with each new day comes a new announcement from the guys at CHSbeer detailing what we’ll all be enjoying at the best beer festival in the Southeast.

While it’s a rainy and gloomy Monday here in the Palmetto State, the beers announced today are certain to brighten your outlook and make you and your liver smile. Because today, Westbrook announced its offerings, and Holy City added a couple more brews to its slate.

WestbrookAt Brewvival 2012, Westbrook was easily one of the fan favorites thanks to their Lichtenhainer Weisse; Hot Garbage Scambic Berliner Rice, a collaboration with Stillwater; Mourvèdre Wine Barrel-Aged Quadrupel and the much-fawned over Mexican Coffee Cake. This year, the Mt. Pleasant brewery shows no signs of disappointing.

holycityNot to be outdone, Holy City also announced two new additions to its already impressive list of beers on tap. Previously announced were BBL Pecan Dream, The Notorious P.I.G.: Mo’ Chocolate, Mo’ Problems porter and the Manuel Fantastico barleywine. The beers added today are:

  • Acronym: Belgian Blackish Brown Imperial Strong Dark India Pale Ale Waffle, a 7% black IPA brewed with Centennial, Summit and Amarillo hops, then fermented with Belgian yeast. It also claims the title of Longest Beer Name at Brewvival (for now);
  • Little Dinghy will also be on tap. In a break from the big, bad beers already on deck, Dinghy is a session beer. A pale ale brewed with, interestingly enough, Falconer’s Flight and Sorachi Ace, it clocks in at a liver-busting 3.9% ABV.

While they’ll announce more offerings in the week to come, Palmetto also announced today it would be bringing its excellent Espresso Porter for all to enjoy.

One day, six new SC beers announced and nine weekdays left to announce what’s left to come. For those of you lollygagging, now’s the time to buy tickets. (No, seriously. Buy them now. They’re going to sell out this week.)

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Coast HopArt

Coast HopArt

Coast Brewing Co.

Charleston, SC

HopArt India Pale Ale

7.7% ABV

If there was a flagship beer for the Palmetto State, I think arguably most would say Coast‘s HopArt IPA is the one. And for me, it was the first South Carolina beer I ever drank.

Even from my early days as a craft beer geek, HopArt has always been the one SC brew that’s stood out to me. Brewed year-round by the North Charleston brewery, the 7.7% IPA is a beast on both the malt and hop fronts using organic Two-row, Munich and Caramel 20 malts and Cascade, Centennial, Nugget and Mt. Hood hops. Aside from the Warhol-esque bottle art, HopArt will always be the first SC beer to cross my palate. Before my tastes had matured, the bready malts and biting hops weren’t very pleasing to me, but this has since become one of my favorite beers in the state.

The nose is a perfect balance of big piney hop notes and more mellow, biscuity malt tones. On the hop end, pine is the most prominent quality, and that’s backed with citrus and tropical fruits. Lemons and grapefruit dominate with a bit of peach and mango mixed in as well. The backbone is quite malty, with a sweeter biscuit note being the most noticeable throughout.

The contrast of the nose is just as prominent in the taste. It begins with an abrasively bitter hop flavor with those citrus notes popping early on. In the middle of the mouth, it’s a bit more mellow as it fads into the malts, but still stings the tongue. But on the finish, this thick, bready malt character takes over everything. Those biscuit flavors take over everything as the citrus fights its way through.

While the malts do a good job of balancing out the hops in HopArt, I wouldn’t exactly call it a balanced beer. It’s extreme on both fronts but at no point does it become too overpoweringly strong. There’s something hopheads of all facets can enjoy, whether they want pungent bitterness or smoother maltiness to their IPA.

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Boxcar Brewing becomes Benford Brewing

benfordAfter just a few months of operation, Boxcar Brewing Co., the Lancaster-based nano brewery, is no more.

No, they (thankfully) haven’t closed. After discovering there’s a West Chester, PA, brewery bearing the same name – which has been around for longer – the owners have decided to change their company’s name to Benford Brewing Co.

During the weekend, brewery owner Bryan O’Neal posted on the company’s Facebook page detailing why the name change had to be made. O’Neal, who lives on Boxcar Road in Lancaster, said he had considered using the name for about five years during his homebrewing days. The name stuck when the brewery opened late last year, but O’Neal recently discovered a the Pennsylvania-based brewery of the same name.

Should the SC brewery ever hit it big, the PA brewery would have seniority as far as names go. But the confusion is already causing problems.

“I initially did not see a problem with this, but already confusion has set in,” O’Neal wrote. “I currently have products and materials that I need for my brewery sitting in PA after I confirmed with the manufacture that I was in SC and not associated with the company in PA. This is the third time this has happened in a very short time.”

Benford is a family name in the region dating back to the 1700s. The beer’s names will reflect that history, wrote O’Neal. The parent company, Boxcar Brewing LLC, will remain.

Benford’s first beers are scheduled to go on tap at a local Lancaster restaurant soon. No word on when or if their brews will reach other parts of the state.