Top Three Breweries
The Eighth State (Greenville, South Carolina) This plucky South Carolina upstart has taken the secondary-sale world by storm, largely due to its indulgent stouts and strong ales. With 50 bottle releases and peanut-butter stouts, it feels like a page straight from the Floridian playbook, albeit executed flawlessly. Their catalog is diverse, and the initial showings from this brewery have been consistently well done.
Calusa (Sarasota, Florida) The thing that sets this silent master apart from its Florida contemporaries is the staggering breadth of styles that they brew and do so well. This Sarasota hit factory has made everything from ESBs to coffee barleywines to crushable Pilsners, and I can only imagine that a Happoshu (sparkling low-malt beverage) is in the works at this point. Very rarely do you get a brewery that not only attempts so many styles, but so consistently knocks them out of the industrial park.
Barreled Souls (Saco, Maine) With this Maine darling, you couldn’t find a more nonstandard brewery portfolio this side of OEC. Every single one of Barreled Souls’ iconic genie bottles bears a laughably tiny bottle count and a wildly original beer made masterfully. While known for their stouts, this New England gem turns out consistently impressive strong ales, barleywines, wheatwines, and everything in between.