E-Malt.com News article: USA, SC & FL: Birds Fly South brewery to open in Greer area

The South Carolina brew scene is getting another new player with the summertime arrival of the Birds Fly South brewery, Greenville Online reported on April 15th.

This brewery will be something altogether different, with a focus on open fermentation and European style saison farmhouse ales. To start, brewery founder Shawn Johnson will contract brew through Greenville’s Thomas Creek Brewery.

But Johnson is looking for space in Greer or northeast of Greenville. "We need that perfect space, old wood, bricks that goes hand in hand with what we will be doing" with beer.” Birds Fly South will also have a second presence in Tarpon Springs, Florida, through the Saint Somewhere Brewing Company, which Johnson described as his "beer daddy."

The idea is to brew the same beers in both South Carolina and Florida, using the same ingredients and processes. They will undoubtedly be a little different, given the climate and humidity in both locations, he said. Johnson has already been home brewing, and he will have his beers at the Community Tap Beer Festival April 25 during Greenville Craft Beer Week. Meanwhile, he's waiting on his federal brewing permit, and the first beers might be coming out of Thomas Creek in June, he said.

Birds Fly South is the latest in a wave of new breweries coming this year including Carolina Bauernhaus Ales in Anderson, Upstate Craft Beer and 13 Stripes in Greenville and Cyclops in Spartanburg.


17 April, 2015