Conquest, Palmetto recognized for their inventive tap handles

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Like a lot of other beer geeks, I’m a sucker for cool and inventive tap handles. When you’re bombarded with dozens of taps at your local bar, as a brewery, you want to make sure your brand stands out. And the easier your tap handle is noticed, the more likely a consumer is to pick out your brew to enjoy.

Thrillist, the online men’s magazine, knows this, and so they’ve compiled a list of what they think are the 23 coolest tap handles in America. Best of all? Two of South Carolina’s own made it on the list.

Columbia’s Conquest and Charleston’s Palmetto are both included among such standouts as SweetWater, Dogfish Head and Revolution. Palmetto’s taps easily stand out at most bars as they are tall palm fronds individually decorated by a local artist. Conquest’s sword and shield combo are also attention grabbing, and even more impressive when you realize there’s an actual sword in the sheath. All of Conquest’s tap handles are also handmade.

Thomas Creek introduces new tap handles

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A quick bit of aesthetic news from South Carolina’s largest brewery: Brand new tap handles from Thomas Creek will soon arrive at your local watering hole.

The new tap handles still prominently feature the Greenville brewery’s logo up top, but everything from the neck down has been given an upgrade. Gone are the old handles, which featured a plastic waterfall and a small logo for the respective beer. In its place is a much larger image depicting the bottle art for the beer, which is covered with a piece of plastic that can be removed so other labels can be put in place.

So, next time you grab a seat at the bar and want a TC brew, keep an eye out for these.