The Best Breweries In Greenville, South Carolina

The 20-some breweries in and around town are adding to the city's cool factor.

When Southerners think of beer, they think of Asheville, which has long had the most breweries per capita regionally (and nearly nationwide). There’s room for other opinions, though. Many think of Greenville as Asheville’s slightly older, more mature cousin that's now becoming a sought-after destination. We even named it The South’s Best City on the Rise in March!

Much has changed since Greenville opened its first craft brewery in 1998, and trust us: The 20-some breweries in and around town are adding to the city's cool factor today. If you're visiting the area, let cold beer cool you off on hot days in any of the taprooms below. Staying a while? Snag a four-pack or crowler to take with you on any of the area’s nearby trails.

Pangaea Brewing

Pangaea Brewing is pretty new to the Greenville beer scene, but its inspiration is prehistoric: owner Steve Schofield dreamed up the brewery in college as Jurassic Brewland, a not-so-tragic version of Jurassic Park where folks could drink beer while walking around with dinosaurs. Science was never going to catch up quick enough (or maybe Schofield was just many millenia too late), but the idea pushed him to try his hand at making beer. After attending the lauded UC Davis Master Brewers Program, Schofield and his wife Emily opened Pangaea 30 miles east of where their love story started at Clemson. Try the surprisingly creamy Queen Pinky, a strawberry and vanilla milkshake IPA, or the Sunrise Fifrildi, a peach and mango kveik sour with a name that translates to “butterfly” in Old Norse. The pizza is a must-get: lucky for the transplants who’ve descended upon Greenville in recent years, Pangaea has what many deem the best pizza in town.

Tetrad Brewing Co.

Tetrad means “a group of four,” and four is their lucky number. For one thing, besties and brewery owners John Bucher and Chad Tynings would have no business without four key ingredients—hops, grain, yeast, and water—and secondly, the duo has lived in four corners of this country, including north in Alaska, west in Oregon and Utah, east in New York and Vermont, and finally, south, settled in Greenville. Most importantly to them, they’re both dads to two kids. 2 + 2 = 4, and you get Tetrad, where the motto is “Brew 4 the love.” Their brewing ventures began with a Mr. Beer home-brew kit, which today sits atop a shelf in view of all who visit. A portion of proceeds from some of the drinks go to organizations that supported Lisa Tydings, Chad’s cousin, during her battle with cancer.

13 Stripes Brewery

Calling all history buffs! 13 Stripes is an American Revolutionary War-themed bar that honors lesser-known heroes of the war with beers like Nathan Hale pale ale and Benjamin Tallmadge amber ale. It has been operating in the revitalized Taylors Mill in nearby Taylors since 2017. To honor the heroes of today, 13 Stripes hosts a free veterans’ muster on the second Thursday of every month, providing a place for those new to the area or just hungry for connection to find and build community. The brewery opened a second location, 13 Stripes River Lodge, along the Saluda River adjacent to the Saluda Outdoor Center last summer. There, you can grab a beer before (and after) you float down the river in one of the outdoor center’s tube rentals, or bring your own kayak and get in at their launch.

Silos Brewing Co.

Silos Brewing Co. anchors The Silos, an indoor-outdoor food hall concept developed where the former Dixie Milling Company stands in Greenville’s Easley suburb. Named for the building’s massive grain silos, Silos Brewing offers favorites like a session IPA and German-style pilsner, and you don’t have to go hungry while drinking it. Try Indigo Kitchen, the Indian fusion street food vendor, or Pink Mama’s ice cream, an outpost of the beloved Upstate dairy bar. The brewery doesn’t serve flights, but there’s no limit on how many brews you can sample, so you can be sure you’ll land on something you’ll want one–or two–of. Try the Blue Collar blonde ale or the Mill Town porter, odes to the economic origins of Easley’s new favorite spot.

Thomas Creek

Father and son duo Bill and Tom Davis opened Greenville’s OG craft brewery in 1998, years before the now popular town began appearing on trendy travelers’ lists (and years before we dubbed it The South’s Best City on the Rise in March). Due to the popularity of its beers, including its flagship River Falls Red Ale and Trifecta IPA, a collaboration with local sipping spot Community Tap, it has expanded eight times since inception. An output of 23,000 barrels a year puts the founding father of the Greenville beer scene as one of the state’s largest, and its dog-friendly taproom 10 minutes from downtown stays cool on even the hottest days of summer.

Fireforge Brewing

University of South Carolina alum Brian Cendrowski didn’t know what he’d do with his MBA when he was going for it, but he told the Greenville News in 2021 the knowledge he gained “really paid off in the long run”–especially since the brewery hit its stride just before the pandemic began, which was no doubt a challenging time for businesses and an important time to master the books. Today, the downtown spot is one of the city’s most popular breweries, drawing devotees two or three nights a week with live music and award-winning beer. Try the Tampanian Devil Belgian-Style Tripel Ale, a guava and star anise tripel, which won silver in the Beverage Testing Institute’s 2022 World Beer Championships.

Carolina Bauernhaus

Take a sip of Oconee Pale Ale and know that everything in your mouth hails straight out of Upstate South Carolina. The Cascade and Nugget whole cone hops are grown at Oconee Hop Farm, the barley is Carolina Crisp, and the oats are grown and developed at Clemson. This–creating a truly local experience–was what owners David Thornton, Keston Helfrich, and Brad Thomas set out to do in 2015 when they opened Carolina Bauernhaus. Some ingredients from the Walhalla farm Thornton shares with his wife Casey make their way into the beer, like Single Source Series Opuntia, which is brewed with yeast from sugar derived from their prickly pear tree. The West Greenville location is actually the brewery’s second, following one Anderson, about 40 minutes south. West Greenville opened in 2020.

Golden Grove

Golden Grove takes entertainment seriously. Want to sit back and relax, or get on your feet and dance? Live music happens weekly at this spacious, rural spot 20 minutes south of downtown. Want to take the entertainment into your own hands? Throw down on the 9-hole disc golf course, which will soon grow to 18 holes. Gluten sensitive folks will love Golden Grove for its gluten-free food options and gluten-reduced beers, which are every bit as tasty as the wheaty kinds.

Birds Fly South

Owners Shawn and Lindsay Johnson sure are wild. Well, their beer is, anyway, or much of it. Birds Fly South has honed wild, funky, and throwback style beers since 2016. Many of their beers are brewed with Brettanomyces, a fungus that brings the funk, including C’Mon Sunshine, which brought home a bronze from the Great American Beer Festival in 2019 and a silver from the Best in Craft Beer Awards in 2020. The brewers’ pride and joy is their Solera beers, which while brewing are pulled from different vessels and blended together in a main batch to both maintain continuity and evolve flavors.

Liability

Welcome to Greenville’s only Certified B Corp brewery, a distinction administrator B Labs says means it “meet[s] the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” Owners Terry Horner, Shane Horner, and Jeremy Schwendeman nabbed the certification this spring, making Liability one of just 18 breweries nationally who fit the bill. You should feel good about the beer you drink, and at Liability, the feelgood comes twofold–the former reason, and a latter one: It's good, approachable drinking. Try the I Support Pun Control hazy IPA and the Everytime You Close Your Ryes rye beer.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many breweries are in downtown Greenville, South Carolina?

There are four breweries located in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, all walkable, according to visitgreenvillesc.com. Breweries include the following: The Eighth State Brewing Company, Fireforge Crafted Beer, Yee-Haw Brewing Company, and The Velo Fellow.

What is the largest brewery in South Carolina?

As of 2021, Palmetto Brewery is the oldest and largest operating brewery in South Carolina. The brewery, located in Charleston, opened in 1888.

For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Southern Living.