Beer is undergoing a revolution. More people aren’t just drinking beer, they’re also making it themselves at home. But if you hail from Dixie, your region hasn’t gotten as much love and attention in craft beer circles as parts of the north and west have, but that’s changing.
All of a sudden, everyone seems to be obsessed with beers made in the south, from Asheville to Tampa to Charleston and even Birmingham, beer geeks are singing the praises of southern beer. But as a true southerner, you always knew the beers from your region were fantastic, it’s everyone else that’s catching up. Here are 16 breweries that taught you to love craft beer if you fell in love with beer while living in the south.
Abita Brewing
Sure everyone seems to know Purple Haze – especially your stoner friends- but as a southerner you also love beers like their Jockamo IPA and Restoration Pale Ale.
Lazy Magnolia
Not many people know there’s a great craft brewery in Mississippi, but even fewer know it’s run by a husband and wife team, where the wife’s the brewmaster.
Sweetwater
These guys may be all the rage now, but you remember when the idea of craft beer in Atlanta was a joke, and then these guys changed all that with beers such as 420, Sweet Georgia Brown and Blue.
Good People Brewing
While your friends might have had Busch lite in their koozies at the tailgate, you had a can of Good People Pale Ale because Good People showed you the future of Alabama beer, and it was bright.
Shiner Bock
Sure you can find it pretty much everywhere now, but you were drinking this beer before the hipsters at SXSW ever discovered it or Austin.
Cigar City
Yeah, you’ve tasted the highly coveted Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout, what of it?
Terrapin
It’s hard to believe there’s more to Athens than great music and football, but this craft beer was probably one of the first you ever had, and it might have made you skip the game to simply hang out at the brewery.
West Sixth Brewing Company
Kentucky is known for Bourbon? Funny, as a true southern beer drinker, you know it for awesome craft beer, especially when it comes to West Sixth’s Lemon Grass American Wheat.
Bayou Teche Biere
This may be a relative newcomer to the Louisiana beer scene, but if you drink beer in the south, you definitely know them, especially their LA 31 Biere Pale.
Westbrook Brewing
While the tourist wander around downtown Charleston like zombies, you’d rather head to Mt. Pleasant for some of the best craft beer in the country. And because it’s near the beach, of course it comes in cans.
Foothills Brewing
These guys probably made the IPA that made you love IPAs.
Wicked Weed
Asheville’s quickly becoming the mecca of southern beer, and true fans know they have to check out Wicked Weed and the brewery’s epic funk house, where some of the best sour beers in the country are being created.
Fullsteam
Wait, there’s a university in this town that actually makes Durham famous? You thought it was the beer made here.
Yazoo Brewery
More proof that great craft beer has been made in the south for a while now.
Wiseacre Brewing
If you were tailgating in The Grove, you probably drank a ton of this.
