I spent a few days in South Carolina last week - Charleston area. Other than a quick drive-though from Florida back to Canada a couple of decades ago, it was my first trip there.

I don't know the name of the trees with the huge horizontal branches that completely encloses roads. Whatever they're called, they are cool :) . My drive from the Charleston Airport to Kiawah Island went through some beautiful country.

... and those huge tree trunks are just a couple of feet away from the road. I guess they don't need space to plow the snow in the winter.

The roads themselves are in good condition. There are lots of small cracks but it doesn't seem to matter. In Canada, one winter's freeze/thaw cycle would turn a road like that into rubble :) .

When renting cars in most American airports you must pass through an extra security check when leaving the lot. This usually has spikes in the road so your tires are punctured if you drive the wrong way. Charleston seems more civilized. You just go to the rental car counter, get your car and drive away -- just like in Canada.

Urrrk... what's with the road signs? "Maximum penalty for speeding is $200 and 30 days in prison." A little bit further on "Maximum penalty for littering is $1000 and prison." Prison??!! For littering? Really? I must admit that I saw very little litter :) .

I had dinner one night on the decommissioned aircraft carrier, Yorktown. It didn't look that big from a distance. It was damned big when you got on it though. The Japanese military must've had one helluva lot of planes and ships considering the kills recorded by just the Yorktown :) .

Man, the cockroaches are big! I squashed a 3-inch long one that dared to leave the air-conditioning vent in the house I was renting. (My accomodation was very upscale and clean. It's just impossible to keep all the bugs out.)

I saw numerous signs warning of alligators. Promises, promises, promises... never saw one.

The houses on the outskirts of Charleston were a study in contrasts. You'd get huge mansions, and fallen down hovels along the same road. Overall though, most houses were in excellent condition with lots of plants and flowers. Charleston itself was somewhat rundown, but I've seen much worse.

There seemed to be a church every few hundred yards!

The food was great! Seafood 'southern-style' was particularly good. Excellent seasonings.

My biggest complaint is one I've had a lot. The beer! I don't think I could get drunk on American beer if I tried. I ate at a number of upscale functions. You'd get Coors Lite, Bud Lite, Miller Lite and usually one 'imported' beer. Once it was Heineken, once it was Amstel, once it was Corona and once it was Guinness. Is the beer mixed with water after brewing?

I'm not a huge fan of Guinness. It's a bit heavy and overpowering for my taste, but you can't deny that it's a good beer -- in Britain, Canada, Europe, but NOT in the U.S. The imported stuff has the hint of the telltale Guinness taste but it's a huge letdown. Even the gimmicky carbon dioxide cartridges in the can to give you a draft-like foam doesn't help.

Overall impression of Charleston and surroundings... cool place. Nice to visit there.

My brother leaves near the coast in S. Carolina and works in N. Carolina. I think they're ready to move back to the West though. It looks like a gorgeous area. But yeah, the bugs and super humid weather would do me in. I haven't been there yet.

My brother says they deep fry everything. Deep-fry snicker's bars, they even collected the stuff at the bottom of a deep-fryer and deep-fry it again and eat it. Yeech!

He said they are just a very different there than us east and west coasters are. They think nothing of stopping their cars in the middle of the road to have a conversation with a car goign the other way. Much more laid back and relaxed. :D

Prison??!! For littering? Really? I must admit that I saw very little litter

You've ruined your own lands . . . you'll not ruin mine! :p

Seriously, if you want good american beer, you're not going to get it with those light beer macro-brew type products. I mean, I don't think Budweiser proper is all that bad, Budwesier Select is better, and Anheuser World Select is still better, though harder to find. But Bud Light and Coors Light are simply awful. It does taste like someone took a Budweiser (or in Coor's case, a Busch) and mixed it 50/50 with water. Miller Lite's not as bad but it's certainly in the same category. I can't believe that the places you went to didn't have more variety in their beer selection - that really sucks. Next time you come down south, come to the Midwest, we're also lovely country with good food, but we have a lot of german / irish / scandanavian ancestry, and with that comes good brewing traditions. Boulevard in Kansas City makes a really nice Wheat (and stout, and irish ale, and pale ale) that is worth trying. Schlafly in St. Louis makes an excellent Pilsner, among their other products. Shiner is in Texas, not technically the midwest, but they make an excellent Bock, as well, if you like Bocks. In the event that you still don't like american beer, most of the restaraunts in the Midwest will offer a much larger selection than what you evidently experienced in S. Carolina. My Stepdad's restaurant (mexican restaurant) has 9 types of mexican beer, Bud, Bud Light, Bud Select, Miller Light, Michelob Light, Michelob Ultra, Michelob Amber, Bass, Harp, Heineken, Labatt's, Newcastle, and Shiner Bock.

I've had good Guinesss in restaurants here but you have to get it at one of those few places that has forked over for the nitrogen based tap. I don't think it's ever been as good out of the bottle or can as it can be on draught.

Thanks Minadin. I've kept a copy of your post. There's nothing like having a good steak and washing it down with some good beer.

I'm impressed that you spell 'draught' the proper way... hehe.

Shiner Bock rules, you can't get the stuff in NY, darnit. I've had to settle for Heine or some other semi-ok stuff. I also like Pyramid from Washington (love their Hefivizen... I have no idea how you spell that), most of their "flavors" are good.

Charleston is an absolutely lovely city. I just got back from the USC campus area in Columbia and had a great time. Maybe thats where you should of been thicket, 3 out of the 7 bars I went to on the first night had over 50 different beers on tap. I drank Warsteiner at those 3, and if you don't know anything about warsteiner its a german beer whose catchphrase is (Life's too short to Drink Cheap Beer.

I always had Bass with seafood and Newcastle is just good any old time. Tsing Tao with chinese (pot-stickers, yeah!)

*cry*

I can't have beer now. Allergic to the malt.

Oh! I forgot to mention Fat Tire, from New Belgium Brewing in Ft. Collins, Colorado. That's also very good beer. Not that there aren't lots of others that haven't been mentioned, but that one also gets a thumbs-up from me.

I'm seen Fat Tire in trader joe's in CA. Or maybe it was Fat Weasel, I forget now.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale?

Fat Tire is ok.

Full Sale
Red Tail
Some of Sam Adams stuff.
Anchor Steam
Gorden Biersch is good
Sudwerk
Pyramid Hefeweizen, good Summertime beer(add a slice of lemon).
Bass is good

For bottled. I can list a dozen micro brews if you like.

Don't you guys get Sierra Nevada across the country? I thought it had great distribution by now. Far superior to any green bottled beer.

I'm not a big fan of sierra nevada, but I also tend to shy away from most pale ale's - It must be that the extra hoppyness sticks in my throat.

Anchor Steam is good.

Sam Adams Light is suprisingly nice for a light beer.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale?


Its good, but the after taste irks me.

I love hoppy ales. Have not found one which was too hoppy for me yet.

And and almost forgot, it may not be a problem now, but Sierra Nevada use to be shipped with no preservatives(I think they use them now), and they also use the Krausening procedure.

They add a little bit of active yeast to every bottle during bottle-ing. Bad results when mixing that with oral pleasuring of the female gender.