Join the rest of the world in some photowalking fun! Whether you’re a seasoned pro or trying to figure out your first camera, come walk with people who love photography!
In Charleston you have two photo walks to choose from on October 1. The first one in the morning starts at the Visitors Center on Meeting St and will wander down towards Liberty Square and the Aquarium.
The second one is in the evening at Waterfront Park at Concord and Vendue Range. If the weather is cooperative, there should be some nice shots with some late afternoon/early evening light. Then when it gets dark it will be time to have some fun playing with light.
Feel free to join either one or both! Sign up for whichever photowalk you want to participate in. Find one in your city to join!
You might think that since they all brew beer, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. You’d be partly right, but mostly wrong. All of them have more or less the same type of brewing hardware and follow more or less the same process, but each of them take different approaches to the craft of brewing.
Palmetto was the largest, most automated and produces the highest volume of the three. That doesn’t keep them from coming up with some tasty brews though. I sampled the Charleston Lager, Pale Ale and Espresso Porter. The lager was a nice light beer while the Pale Ale was a little too much on the hoppy side for my liking. The Porter was my favourite, with the espresso providing a nice smooth coffee flavour (courtesy of Charleston Coffee Roasters next door).
Showing off the brewing tanks
Coast is the smallest, brewing a volume of around 1/10 that of Palmetto. Coast is kind of my default favourite because they’re the first of the local microbreweries I started with. Coast prides themselves on being small and keeping as organic as they can, and it shows in the beers they put out. They had their usual four offerings, but I only had the 32/50 Kolsch. It’s a hard one to say no to on a hot day. The Boy King Double IPA is a favourite with most of my friends and although I’m not generally a fan of IPAs, Boy King is one I don’t mind drinking.
Coast tastings
Westbrook is new and shiny. Compared to Palmetto and Coast, which are both located in old warehouses, Westbrook Brewing is fancy. New building, shiny new equipment and pretty landscaping.
Westbrook tasting room
You’ll even find a few hops vines growing outside, which I’m told produces enough to be used for a couple casks of beer. If you’ve never seen real hops, stop by and check it out. Westbrook likes to play with their brewing, adding flavours that you wouldn’t normally expect in beer. Here I sampled the White Thai and the Cowboy meets Farmer. Both were pretty hoppy brews that I’m not too sure I liked. I could probably drink the Cowboy though.
Perhaps most interesting was the beer they had aging in oakbarrels.
Westbrook oak barrel aging room
There was beer aging in a variety of different types of oak barrels: Jack Daniels whisky barrels, pinot noir barrels, French oak, American oak. Wouldn’t mind having a chance to taste some of them when they’re ready to be tapped.
The tour was a great time, and it was pretty cool to get to see the different perspectives and approaches to brewing beer. I think Coast still remains my favourite though.
Had a good time at today’s CREATESouth. Got to meet up with friends, eat some tasty BBQ and sit in on some good sessions.
Attendance seemed to be pretty good this year with a lot of new faces.
Lunch by Andre Pope and Proud Purveyors of Pork was excellent as usual. I even managed to win some of their sauces and rub. Looking forward to trying it out on the two Boston butts in my freezer.
Serving up some BBQ
First session of the afternoon was the Photography Hacks session by Kreg Steppe. He went over a few simple little hacks and gadgets that could be done pretty easily and inexpensively. The coffee filter gray card for setting the white balance was pretty nifty.
Next session was one on building mobile apps. Didn’t go into too much depth, but introduced a few interesting looking tools and suggestions. A good session for whetting the appetite.
The last session I went to was Homebrew 101. Although I doubt I’ll ever get into brewing my own beer (just not that heavy a beer drinker) it was interesting to see everything that goes into the process.
There was one more session and then the after party, but it was time for me to leave so I could get back to the dogs. A great day and I got to learn something at each session I went to.
CREATESouth is looking for new volunteers to help with organizing next year’s event. If you’re interested, sign up! It’s a great event to be involved in.
Objective: Get my copy of Home-Ec 101 autographed by the author.
