Chattooga River near Athens, GA, and Greenville, SC
Think river rafting and it’s hard not to think of the movie Deliverance while dueling banjos haunt your inner iPod. In the movie, Burt Reynolds and company decide to ride the untamed Cahulawassee River (starring the Chattooga River in its career-defining role) before the river (and Ned Beatty’s character) is dammed. The Chattooga is part of the natural border between Georgia and South Carolina, running equidistant between Athens, GA, and Greenville, SC. The region is described by some as hillbilly, not terribly conducive to craft beer culture, but not totally devoid either.
Athens resident, Classic City Brew Fest creator and writer for Southern Brewing News Owen Ogletree admits that nowhere in rural Appalachia will you find a stellar outlet for craft beer, but luckily the culture in Athens is picking up steam. Home of the University of Georgia with a beautiful campus situated on the river walk, this college town has long been renowned for its music scene. It spawned REM, whose guitarist, Peter Buck, used to own the famed 40 Watt Club (285 W. Washington St.) where contemporary college darlings like Of Montreal got their start.
After the river, take a tour of Terrapin Brewing...
Beer here starts with Terrapin Brewing (terrapinbeer.com; 265 Newton Bridge Road), which offers tours that last roughly two and a half hours. Keep in mind that time includes an ample session for tasting their beers such as Hop Karma Brown IPA and anything from their Side Project Series, like their Indiana Krunkles, for example, which is a wheat IPA.
Walk two blocks up the hill you get to the Copper Creek Brewery (140 E. Washington St.). Athens’s only brewpub has four beers on tap, “Usually standard styles like pale ale, IPA, brown and something light like a Kölsch or dark like a stout,” says Ogletree. He also mentions that the bar is covered in pennies, in lieu of making it out of copper, which turned out to be cheaper. “One penny is tails up. I’ve never found it; it’s a huge feat if you do.” The attractive spot with the brewing tanks aesthetically displayed slings good pub grub and sandwiches. Tuesdays mean $2 pints and the first Wednesday of the month is cask night.
...Or visit the Trappeze Pub for a pint of cask ale.
The best beer bar in town, according to Ogletree, is the Trappeze Pub (trappezepub.com; 269 North Hull St.). A couple of guys who love craft beer created it because they couldn’t get anyone to start a beer bar, so they broke down and did it themselves. While others said such an establishment that didn’t cater to the cheap booze crowd couldn’t make it, it now stands as one of the most successful bars downtown and even recently expanded. In addition to finding a wide array of beers flowing from over 30 taps (it’s naturally heavy on Terrapin brews) you’ll also find goods from Atlanta’s Sweetwater and the new Wild Heaven Brewing from Decatur, such as Ode to Mercy, an imperial brown brewed with coffee roasted from 1000 Faces in Athens.
Speaking of beer joints cleverly riffing off of the original Trappist Abbey, the Trappe Door makes a day trip across the South Carolina border in order. The Trappe Door (trappedoor.com; 23 W. Washington St.) in Greenville emulates classic Belgian gastrotaverns in look and feel and the menu includes 11 taps of Belgian or Belgian-style craft beers plus over 150 bottles, heavy on the monastics. Lending to that perfect feel, it’s located in the basement below Barley’s Pizza, under the same ownership no less. Barley’s (barleystaproom.com/greenville; 25 W. Washington St.) is a small Southeast chain and their beer list is a veritable scroll longer than the Dead Sea’s, but goes better with New York-style pizza.
