Welcome to part two of our two part Savannah breweries post. This is just one part of a four part trip down to Georgia. You can read Savannah part one here as well as check out our Hilton Head Island excursion here and Melissa’s must read Savannah Banana baseball attendance guide here.
Trees & a Graveyard
When you head to Savannah, be sure to make time to visit the Wormsloe Historic Site and go see some awesome trees. Yes, it may sound crazy but the historic site has a road of well-manicured Live Oak trees with hanging Spanish moss. While photos of the site are gorgeous, they do little justice to the actual brilliance of driving or walking down the road under these trees on a cool summer morning. There is also a museum and walking trails displaying early settler life, which is also super interesting so be sure to check everything out if you’re into history.
Moving from scenic and lively trees to a more grimdark tone is a trip to the world renowned Bonaventure Cemetery. The 70 acre ex-plantation, the Bonaventure plantation, was the site of the then Evergreen Cemetery in 1846. Over the years, the cemetery had to be expanded outwards into the plantation grounds and is now referred to as the Bonaventure Cemetery; a 103 acre graveyard. We didn’t stop to read every gravestone, but we certainly picked out and googled the more curious looking ones, and stopped at a few of the more notorious sites. There are plenty of walking tours, but unfortunately timing didn’t work for us.
Coastal Empire Beer Co.
After you square your mornings away with Live Oaks and a cemetery, there’s only 3 more breweries to hit in the city of Savannah. Coastal Empire Beer Co. is only a 10 minute drive from downtown Savannah and is pet friendly. They do kindly ask that you put all alligators on a leash. The large taproom is no frills; Coastal is certainly more production focused.
Our flight of four beers consisted of two average brews, and two above averages. The Pineapple IPA comes as described with big notes of pineapple in both the aroma and flavor. The more interesting beer of the flight was the Mango Con Chili; also tastes exactly as it sounds. Brewed with mangoes and cayenne peppers, the spicy, but refreshing chili beer is one of the more interesting beers we’ve had on this trip.
Two Tides Brewing Company
Going into this trip, Two Tides Brewing was the only brewery we were aware of prior to research. We had big expectations for their beer and they certainly lived up to it. As this was our last brewery of the night, we decided to go all out and get a flight of 8. Everything we checked in on Untappd here scored at least a 3.75 from us with Foolade, Y’all and Spread the Jam being our favorites.
Foolade as far as we can tell on Untappd only comes in the original flavor, and the Cherry Limeade – which was the one we had. The cherry soda inspired beer was sweet, sour and full of both cherry and lime flavors. Probably a top 10 take on a blankade beer we’ve ever had. The Y’all radlers come in two flavors; Cara Cara Orange and Grapefruit & Tangerine. We got to try the Cara Cara Orange, which had a delicious blood orange and tangerine flavor. For being a radler, it looked and tasted more akin to orange juice than a beer.
Spread the Jam comes in five varieties, and we were fortunate enough to try the Strawberry Peach, their highest rated version on Untappd. Packed with strawberry and peach puree and a touch of vanilla bean, the blend was a fruited milkshake beer that was the king of our flight. If you get the opportunity to stop at Two Tides be sure to make Spread the Jam a priority on your flight paddle.
4th of July in Savannah
If you find yourself in Savannah on the 4th, be sure to grab a few drinks and head down to the river front for a spectacular fireworks show. After the show, stick around for some people watching because Savannah is an open container city! After the fireworks ended we:
- Got to watch a young couple break up and then make up in under 30 minutes
- Watch a drunk guy fall into the river, then get fished out by the Police
- Watch another drunk guy shatter a window using only his bare fist
Hop Atomica
It’s our last full day in Savannah and we have one brewery left. Hop Atomica is a rather posh looking brewery with fancy looking pizzas, pretzels and Belgian waffle charcuterie tray. Of course Melissa had to get the posh waffle charcuterie, but as I was still in the 4th of July spirit; I went for the loaded hotdogs.
We’re not foodies, but we do enjoy good food and Hop Atomica certainly excelled in that department. As far as beer, we had a flight of five, plus one Red, White and Blue sparkling booze beverage thing – see photos below. Out of the five brews, Pinky Swear and Law & Disorder are the two that should be on your radar.
Pinky Swear advertises itself as a pink Starburst (yes, the candy) beer. And boy does that pink Starburst flavor hit you in all the right spots. My mouth is salivating as I’m typing this, seriously go get a taster of it. If Starbursts aren’t your thing, seek out the strawberry, passion fruit and melon Law & Disorder IPA. Hazy, dank and smooth are the best ways to describe this fruit flavor rich IPA.
After that lunch at Hop Atomica, it was just a bit more walking around downtown before flying home. Hopefully we can get our Grand Rapids and Chicago blog posts out before our next trip… but that’s doubtful.
