LOCAL LEGEND BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

At the south end of beach resort-lined Hilton Head Island, LOCAL LEGEND BREWING COMPANY promises High Times at Lowcountry. Opened at a vacant Industrial hardware warehouse March ’25 by Asheville-based restauranteur Alan Wolf, whose conceptual plan, culinary intrigue and ‘dynamic beer culture’ stem from his North Carolina days, the spacious sporstbar includes an Adirondack-chaired biergarten.

Designed for interactive family-friendly activities as well as midrange beer consumption, Local Legend’s right side games keep kids busy while parents gobble and quaff.

Inside a grey warehouse, the cement-floored, wood-tabled interior features a unique 40 bucket-seated bar with twelve draughts, multi-TV’s, exposed pipes, sporty back wall mural and glassy overhead doors.

Flagship off-dry blonde lager, Bombshell, let spritzy lemon and fizzy mandarin orange tickle mild floral spicing over delicate pale malt sugaring.

Nearly as easygoing, well-balanced witbier, Great White Ale, put slim orange-peeled coriander sweetness alongside golden wheat graining.

Brisk orange-peeled grapefruit bittering reached the mild pine tones of King Tide, a moderate-bodied New England IPA in need of stylish oated creaming (instead of commonplace dry pale malting).

Black-peppered chai spicing spotted cinnamon, cardamom and ginger sugaring for Chai Brown Ale, leaving menthol peppermint zesting on its vanilla-daubed mocha midst.

Eagle Rare bourbon-barreled Honey Horn Maibock soaked orange blossom honey into oaken whiskey, peaty Scotch and dry rum spirits.

Wintry Belgian golden strong ale, Holiday Ale ’25, a spicy herbal Christmastime celebrator, allowed rummy brown-sugared cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to penetrate candied orange, glazed hazelnut, fig, date and dried cherry subtleties.

LINCOLN & SOUTH BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA

Going up the road from Hilton Head’s Midland Beach in a secluded Industrial area, LINCOLN & SOUTH BREWING COMPANY came to fruition in August 2021. A family-friendly joint in an aluminum warehouse with beautifully designed sunny day mural and white silo, the overhead-doored pub also boasts a wide open biergarten. The six-seat wood and metal bar services a few small block wood tables in a rustic wood paneled environment.

Brightening Lincoln & South’s interior is a colorful lake-meadow wall painting. A staging area in the rear contains the large aluminum brew tanks. There were charcuterie board cheeses, burgers and sandwiches for munching. Guest taps joined nine homemade L & S draughts my wife and I downed New Year’s Day 2026.

Musically sharp bartender, Christian, played cool tunes, putting on an obscure album by Curtis Knight & the Squires featuring Jimi Hendrix while I imbibed the last few India Pale Ales.

Corn-dried oats sugaring speckled the peaty Scotch licks of German-styled light body, Beach City Pilsner, an easygoing opener.

Spritzy citrus sunshine lathered Golden Hair Summer Ale, an off-dry moderation with light herbal spicing peppering sweet cara-pils malting.

A fine collaboration with Palmetto Brewing, sweet pilsner malt breading grazed lightly spiced lemony herbage of Palmetto Kolsch, a soft-toned moderation.

Crisp tobacco-roasted peat moss surfaced for sweet amber grained The Bog Red Ale, gaining honeyed brown tea spot (and spiced herbal respite).

Soft-toned New England IPA, Afterglow, placed sunny orange-peeled grapefruit tanginess across mild pine lacquer atop vanilla-daubed oated wheat creaming.

Flagship NEIPA, Hearts & Arrows, retained a dry Citra-hopped tropicalia as yellow grapefruit and orange rind bittering joined salty pineapple-mango tanginess before leaving a piney tingle.

Yet another NEIPA, 8% ABV Ales For A.L.S. brought juicy floral-spiced tropicalia to the fore as tangy orange-peeled yellow grapefruit, peach, pineapple and peach pleasantries caressed sugary wheated oats.

On the dark side, mossy nuttiness consumed dark chocolate bitterness for Ace Of Spades Black Lager, forwarding hop-charred cola, macadamia and Brazil nut illusions in a brisk clean water setting.

Dry debittered black malts contrasted maple molasses syruping sweetening up Ditch Gator Oatmeal Stout, tossing in black grape, dry burgundy and fruitcake notions above the dark chocolate base.

TWO TIDES BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

Occupying a historic Victorian edifice on a residential side street, TWO TIDES BREWING COMPANY opened its doors March 2018 in Savannah’s Starland District. Owner-operators Liz and James Massey produce small-batch beers, focusing on, but not limited to, fruited sours and IPA’s, at the pubs first floor brewroom.

A snazzily homey cottage-like retreat, Two Tide’s pale green-walled second floor includes a cozy community-tabled main cafe (with white tile-fronted wood top bar), olden wood floors, an antique hearth plus three furnished parlor rooms and the back balcony where my wife and I quaffed five homemade draughts (and took home five more reviewed in Beer Index) during our post-Xmas Southern jaunt. Homebrewed coffee also available.

Fizzy light lager, Drift, merged crisp cereal graining with underlying whiskey souring, dried maize astringency, mild hop herbage and cabbaged skunking.

Sessionable ‘house pale ale, Rhyming Numbers Vol. 16, tucked lemony grapefruit Citra hop dryness and resinous Chinook hop pining into grassy herbal astringency above caramelized pale malts.

Toasty Octoberfest, Charm Marzen, flanked Vienna malt dewiness with leafy hop oiling.

Tart Smoothie-like Mystic Sour caressed sweet carrot juicing with orange concentrate and salty mango adjuncts, picking up sweet vanilla creaming to counter the ongoing citric alkalinity.

Dark-roast coffee nuttiness inundated rich coffee stout, Forever Never, gaining dark chocolate, espresso and soymilk illusions.

DEBELLATION BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

A Norsemen Viking themed brewpub-sportsbar, DEBELLATION BREWING COMPANY is stationed at a tan corrugated steel Industrial building right off Route 95 just outside Savannah in the affluent coastal town of Richmond Hill.

Upon entering, the wood-floored main space features an L-shaped wood lacquered bar (with 20 draughts including outside ciders and meads) servicing block wood community tables, upper observation deck and fire-pitted back patioed pavilion. Two central chandeliers center the high-celinged wood paneled barn house interior and two TV’s sidle the beer menu above the tap handles.

Displaying its ancient Norse culture, Debellation’s Viking ship mural, walled deer antlers and stacked logs offer interestingly designed Medieval relics to the wood-decked pub.

Owner Dave Goodell’s easygoing fare had a definite European flare on my post-Christmas ’25 journey. I tried all homemade brews except Tree Nail Light Lager.

Well-realized, offbeat peculiarity, Spicy Garlic Pickle, a briny pickled garlic blonde ale, retained a sourly acidic vinegaring for its curious mustard seed, peppercorn and jalapeno subsidies.

An efficient lemony banana-clove onrush secured Mjolnirweizen Hefe, leaving sour apple, dried plantain and mild herbage on its sourdough bottom.

Tobacco-roasted cereal graining embossed Erik The Red Roggenbier, a German rye ale with dewy peat reaching mild pumpernickel-rye finish.

Toasted amber grains and roasted cigarette crisping led Fenair Red Irish Ale, picking up spicy red-orange fruiting and light maple sugaring.

Candy-glazed fruited pale ale, Frigg’s Cran Apple, let honey-spiced red apple sweetness flourish alongside tart cranberry saucing.

Mild juniper berry bittering teased the rye and pilsner malting guarding Finnish farmhouse ale, Berserker Viking Sahti, relegating light herbal spicing.

As for the one dark ale, nutty coffee roast inundated nitrogenated Naglfar Nitro Coffee Stout, placing lightly salted soy graining across dark-roast hops and debittered black malts.

BACK RIVER BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

TYBEE ISLAND, GEORGIA

Just a few miles West of the Atlantic Ocean in the sun-kissed beach town of Tybee Beach, BACK RIVER BREWERY serves stylistically conservative small-batch brews and “casual eats.” Located above a Mexican restaurant, the cozy aquamarine outpost became the islands’ first brewpub, May ’22.

Eight aluminum-chaired wood tables sidle the 15-seat wood lacquered bar. Windowed tanks store the approachable Back River suds.

My wife and I visited late December ’25, downing four welcoming draughts after a day at the beach. However, we ran out of time and missed out on About Lager Time, Blood Moon Rising Gose, I’m So Juicy IPA and Old School Cool East Coast IPA

Dry grassy-hopped herbage draped the lemony blueberry scurry of What Is A Kolsch, a brisk pilsner-malted moderation.

Easygoing Festive Fruits, a tart cranberry-tangerine-induced sour ale, let ancillary white peppered herbage and limey salting contrast its sugary vanilla creaming.

Juicy fruited Bongwater Bay Session IPA placed mild lemony orange peeled grapefruit bittering next to pineapple-candied tartness, tangerine tanginess and herbal spicing atop lightly creamed caramel malts.

Aged in unspecified wine barrels, boozy Just The Trip Tripel corralled tart blackberry, vinous white grape, lemon lime and oaken cherry.

NORTH SOUTH BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs

FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

On a clear sunny Friday afternoon in December ’25, my wife and I drifted into the South to soak up the sun and a few suds in Savannah, Hilton Head and Tybee Island. But our first stop was Fayetteville to take in the newly formed NORTH SOUTH BREWING COMPANY, opened May 31, 2025.

North South owner James Orlando began homebrewing in 2011 and along with his wife, Alicia, grew up in New England, met in Savannah, then moved to Fayetteville (soon hooking up with local head brewer Jonny Isaacson).

Crafting highly approachable and easygoing stylistically fare at their beige yellowed cement-floored barn house facility, the Orlando’s spacious neo-Industrial pub features a silestone-topped, L-shaped, 20-stool bar anchoring silver metal chaired tables strewn across the bright blue interior. A benched grass patio adds further seating.

A backwall projection screen TV has the BYU-Georgia Tech bowl game on while we consume eight North South ales.

For a light-bodied opener, dry beige cleared Lager Than Light let spritzy salt-watered lemon sourness spike its mild sourdough bottom and latent metallic sheen.

Rustic grain penetration gave Saaz-hopped Czech One Two, a Bohemian pilsner, its Scotch-daubed corn whiskey pulse.

Lemony banana-clove settled above white wheat sourdough breading of Sweet Fraulein, a tidy Noble-hopped pilsner-malted hefeweizen.

Musky lemon fizz prickled grassy hop astringency and diacetyl pale malt buttering of Grain Juice Kolsch, scoured by dried maize snips.

Spiced banana sweetness lingered softly for Chains Of Krampus Tripel, revealing subtle lemon custard, orange marmalade and blueberry wisps at the butterscotch-candied finish.

Perfumy orange-peeled peach, pineapple and mango tanginess gained vanilla-creaemed oated wheat buttering for Haze Girl Hazy IPA, leaving mild grass-stained pine musk on the Citra-Mosiac-hopped tropical fruited entry.

Dry Cold Winter Cabin Stout secured its nutty coffee bean creaming with dark cocoa powdering grazing dark-roast hop char.

Pudding skinned dark cocoa spread across Hello Darkness My Old Friend, a diffident Imperial Stout scattering musty black cherry, dry burgundy, anise and walnut snips across the dark chocolate base.