I am so much better at quick updates on twitter. Always behind on this here blog. Find me over there: @COASTbrewing

Our next seasonal went out today, our first Belgian! It is a beautiful golden color with a white, fluffy head. Some nice phenols combine with a light, wheaty malt backbone. Considerable hops and the nice Belgian tang bring it all home. So drinkable at 5.7% and perfect for this summery spring weather. We’re really happy with our first Belgian and hope you are too.

the Belafonte is Steve Zissou’s ship in the Life Aquatic.

A combined brewery tasting bill AND beer retail tasting (seperate from our  bill 3693- brewery tastings) is being contested. Please contact Senator Phil Leventis and ask him to support this bill. It encourages growth across the board for the craft beer movement.

In this instance, emailing is preferred:  philleventis@scsenate.gov

Link to H. 4572

So we are trying to get a 2nd and 3rd reading done for our bill, HB #3693, this week! Please contact the following members, preferably via phone- especially if you are their constituent and I listed the appropriate counties. You can email from the statehouse website at www.scstatehouse.gov

Speaker of the House- Robert W. Harrell, Jr.
District 114 - Charleston & Dorchester Cos.
(803) 734-3125

Representative James Merrill-
District 99 - Berkeley & Charleston Cos.
(803) 734-3072

Representative William G. “Bill” Herbkersman
District 118 - Beaufort Co.(803) 734-3063

Representative Annette D. Young
District 98 - Charleston & Dorchester Cos. Bus.(803) 734-2953

Majority Leader Kenneth A. “Kenny” Bingham
District 89 - Lexington Co. (803) 734-3138

Representative G. Murrell Smith, Jr.
District 67 - Clarendon & Sumter Cos. (803) 734-3042

Representative Daniel P. “Dan” Hamilton
District 20 - Greenville Co. (803) 212-6795

Representative Bruce W. Bannister
District 24 - Greenville Co.(803) 734-3009

Representative Eric M. Bedingfield
District 28 - Greenville Co.(803) 734-2962

Representative Joan B. Brady
District 78 - Richland Co.(803) 734-3027

Representative Alan D. Clemmons
District 107 - Horry Co.(803) 734-2994

Minority Leader Harry L. Ott, Jr.
District 93 - Calhoun, Lexington & Orangeburg Cos.(803) 734-2998

Representative Leonidas E. “Leon” Stavrinakis
District 119 - Charleston Co.(803) 734-3039

This time around he is 9.7% abv and we bumped up the Citra Hops even more because we are just loving this hop variety. Think tropical fruits like mango and pineapple- the aroma is simply beautiful. We’re so glad he’s back!

Draft only and should start showing up at the end of the week.

Alrighty- our bill #3693 is up for Full Judiciary on March 9 (please note the amendment was approved last meeting but I still don’t see the new language on the statehouse site)- so now we need your support on this committee- Phone Calls work the best but we’ll take your emails as well

Statehouse site:  http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-p … mmlst.html (look for Judiciary Committee) we need to contact each member on that Committee (all 25 of em)

Again- we so appreciate the support from each one of you!

–

And here are all the members of the House Judiciary Committee

Harrison, James H. , Chm.
Jennings, Douglas , Jr., 1st V.C.
Smith, Garry R. , 2nd V.C.
Allen, Karl B.
Bannister, Bruce W.
Clemmons, Alan D.
Cole, J. Derham , Jr.
Delleney, F. Gregory “Greg” , Jr.
Funderburk, Laurie Slade
Hamilton, Daniel P. “Dan”
Hearn, George M.
Horne, Jenny Anderson
Kelly, R. Keith
McLeod, Walton J.
Miller, Vida O.
Nanney, Wendy K.
Rutherford, J. Todd
Sellers, Bakari T.
Smith, James E. , Jr.
Sottile, F. Michael “Mike”
Stavrinakis, Leonidas E. “Leon”
Viers, Thad T.
Weeks, J. David
Whipper, J. Seth
Young, Thomas R. “Tom” , Jr.

Okay so I’ve seen lots of folks state that more festivals should go the rout of buying beer like Brewvival did- well maybe

Plenty of other beer festivals are fine just the way they are since they fill whatever intention set by the festival organizers- we just went by a different philosophy then that and it works for what we want

Also: just because we had so many rare and one off beers does NOT mean that is all that you should seek out- in fact quite the opposite

My own personal hope as the outcome of Brewvival is this: You would try some styles/beers that you may not have had before and may not ever again- which is great- and then you would go home to wherever it is your from and drink both from your local breweries and maybe try some of the beers from the breweries you experienced at Brewvival- not just try to find the ever elusive one-off beer from 3 years ago that was aged in barrels from a 100 person town in the countryside of Slovenia (you get my point)- these are all great beers but maybe even more important are the daily drinker beers that are sometimes forgotten about- my 2 cents anyways

(and yes my  comma and period keys don’t seem to be working—)

We have finally semi-recovered from Brewvival. It was out of this world! So many of you trusted both COAST and Charleston Beer Exchange to bring you a world class beer festival and we can’t thank you enough.  This festival idea of ours was different from the beginning and from the looks of the turn-out, ya’ll agree we’re on the right track. Even though I got too busy to try many, the line-up was incredible and we are truly proud of that.

This was our inaugural event and fittingly, we had a few hiccups (namely check in and food shortages as well as some issues with Aloft’s shuttle).  If we do it again, we will of course address all of these.

I am going to attempt to thank some people who, without their support, we would not have been able to pull this off. I apologize to those who I inadvertently leave off……..

Merritt Brokerage

My NJ Crew! (Beth, Jim, Penny, Willie, Sarah, Dave)

Greg Koch

Chrys Rynearson Photographer/Videographer

Robert Donovan Photographer

The Digitel

The City Paper

The Bridge 105.5

LEEP Bio-Bus

Nathan Durfee our talented hometown Artist

Stage Presence

Southern Brew News

The local bands and food vendors who quite simply, rocked! Butterbeans, Po’Ridge, V-Tones, Jason and the Juggernauts and Folkgrass. D’Allesandro’s and Ted’s Butcherblock.

Some of the many volunteers: Mike and Michelle Taliercio, Shane Cummings, Jason and Mary White, and many, many more.

And finally all the Breweries for doing what you do best: brewing fantastic beer because you love it and having faith in our idea!

Here’s hoping that Brewvival was just the beginning of a wonderful year of craft beer in South Carolina!

So we’ve been wanting to not filter the kolsch for a long time and we’re finally doing it! Why? Not filtering out the yeast and hops gives the beer a bigger profile yet still delicate and not overbearing. So incredibly fresh tasting, pilsner like in my opinion and super clean. We did let it bright out a bit longer to help the yeast drop out so it is only slightly cloudy. This unfiltered kolsch is now my go to beer it’s that good. If everyone agrees we’ll keep it up for a while (so please agree!).