Thomas Creek Brewery

Though a massive wave of new beers hit Alabama for the first time last summer after the Gourmet Beer Bill passed, things have slowed down quite a bit over the past few months. New stuff is still coming in and will continue to arrive for years to come, but the arrivals are fewer and farther between and it’s easier to focus on new breweries entering our market for the first time.

One recent arrival for Alabama is Thomas Creek Brewery out of Greenville, South Carolina. I had the good fortune of bumping into the brewery’s Sales Director, Katie Barnes, as she was visiting some bars around Birmingham with beer samples in tow to introduce proprietors to the Thomas Creek portfolio. I was also lucky enough to sit in on a tasting of several of those beers.

Founded in 1998 by home-brewer Tom Davis, Thomas Creek is only distributed in a handful of Southeastern states. So we’re now part of a privileged minority of Americans with access to these handcrafted brews.

Like Alabama, South Carolina long suffered under a draconian limit on the amount of alcohol allowed in beer. Until a few years ago, the state’s breweries were held back by a 5% alcohol by weight (ABW) limit—the equivalent of 6.3% by volume. (Although the entire alcohol industry has standardized on measuring alcohol as a percentage of volume, in the U.S. it was once common to measure it as a percentage of weight, and South Carolina’s law reflected the old standard.) So for the first decade of its existence, the folks at Thomas Creek couldn’t brew any double IPAs, imperial stouts, Belgian-style dubbels, strong Scotch ales, barley wines, etc. ... all of the styles we were denied in Alabama.

But in 2007 the South Carolina legislature raised the alcohol limit on beer to 14% ABW (17.5% ABV). Surprisingly, Davis didn’t go crazy at his brewery turning out all those previously-forbidden styles. Today the brewery has eight year-round beers and only one of them exceeds the old alcohol limit—Up The Creek Extreme IPA, which clocks in at 12.5% ABV. As I mentioned just last week, there is something of a blurry line between double IPAs and barley wines, and this beer definitely rides the line with a deep reddish hue and loads of caramel malt sweetness. The sweetness is a good balance to the extreme bitterness. And of course it has mountains of citrus hop flavor and aroma.

I think my personal favorite of the bunch was the Deep Water Dopplebock. At first I assumed it was a new addition to their lineup since dopplebocks tend to have high alcohol contents. But at 6.25% ABV it actually comes in just below the old South Carolina limit. And it won a silver medal at the World Beer Championship way back in 2003, so it’s been around a while. It’s a bit outside the norm for the style with its prominent roasted malt character and chocolate notes. As I am easily bored with “the norm,” I appreciate the different approach here. It gets close to porter territory.

In addition to the two mentioned above, the rest of the Thomas Creek lineup should be appearing in select stores around Birmingham over the next couple of weeks:

Dockside Pilsner, River Falls Red Ale, Appalachian Amber Ale, Class Five IPA, Pumphouse Porter, and Stillwater Vanilla Cream Ale. The Vanilla Cream Ale is a very original creation, as I have never before encountered a cream ale brewed with vanilla. It hits your tastebuds pretty strong up front but as you continue to sip on the beer the vanilla flavor recedes and it becomes a very refreshing session beer, with just a bit of sweetness. I’d like to try it with some vanilla ice cream on a hot day.

It’s great to see Thomas Creek in Alabama, and I’m eager to see more craft breweries send beer to our state.

“Hopped Up” is a weekly brew review by Danner Kline, founder of Free the Hops and co-organizer of the annual Magic City Brewfest. Send your feedback to danner@freethehops.org.