Online men’s magazine Thrillist has shown love for SC breweries in the past, rarely shying away for their man crush for Westbrook down in Mt. Pleasant. But when it came to highlighting what they consider the best brewery in the state, they shifted their sights to another side of the state.
On Wednesday, Thrillist published an article titled The Best Craft Brewery in Every State. The list highlights what some would consider obvious picks – Cigar City in Florida, The Alchemist in Vermont, New Glarus in Wisconsin – but when it came to the Palmetto State, Thrillist made a pretty surprising pick: Greenville’s Thomas Creek.
I say “surprising” not because TC doesn’t deserve such an honor (they do), but because it would be safe to assume – or at least I assumed – the crown would go to Westbrook based on the aforementioned man crush. Thrillist touched on that in their reasoning for picking TC:
Westbrook Brewing Co. is certainly operating in the 1% of SC breweries with offerings like their “Old Time” series, but Thomas Creek gets the nod with year-round standouts like the Up The Creek Extreme IPA with a mind boggling 143 IBUs, which is somehow possible, and rarer releases like the Banana Split Chocolate Stout and the imperial Belgian-style porter Conduplico Immundus Monachus, which likely translates to “more please”.
Many picks on the list tend to lean more toward quality than hype, including picking Brooklyn for New York instead of Sixpoint or Ommegang; Great Divide in Colorado over the bajillon other breweries there; and Foothills in North Carolina over “the Hill Farmstead of the Southeast,” Wicked Weed. (Note: HF was not on the list either.) Of course, all best-of lists – this included – are subjective, but that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting to see what gets picked.
