Shot from the parking lot and the road. Careful or you might miss it.
Consider yourself in the know. Somebody had to tell me, and I still drove past it. In Moultrie Plaza, off Coleman Blvd, down near the Ravanel bridge stands a new craft beer/wine store. It’s called “Bottles”. I checked it out for all of us to see if it was worth your time.
The Good
“Bottles” boasts a large selection across spirits/wine/beer. The craft beer options are larger than most vendors in the area and I was pleasantly surprised with some of the more exotic offerings from well known breweries. ( I picked up Bell’s new special seasonal “Hell Hath No Fury”, I’ll save it for another review but for now all I can do is strongly suggest you go get some)
There were numerous great options in the coolers (10+)
They have a large cooler at least 10 doors wide. I counted but I can’t quite remember, it could be 12. It’s large enough and plenty jammed up with 22′s and six packs of eclectic options.
They have a growler station with about 8 interesting beers. I didn’t snap a pic of this, but it’s in the middle of the store and the guy working the taps appeared knowledgable.
They have a walk-in humidor. It’s not quite as large as Total Wine in West Ashley, but they did have some items that is not carried at TW.
The Bad
While they did have a lot of interesting options, the beer section felt like it should have been bigger. There wasn’t a beer I was looking for that they didn’t have at the moment, but I felt like they picked and chose some key items from popular micro-breweries, without trying to carry all that breweries selections.
Not all staff is knowledgeable. As mentioned above, I was walking out with Bell’s Hell Hath No Fury, a Belgian Dark Ale. A staff member (not the cashier) approached me and informed me that I should only drink 2 of them and leave the other 4 in a dark place for 6 months to 1 year to really let it appreciate. This would be the first beer I’d ever heard that got better with age (given the entire chemistry of how beer actually works). I did some research when I got home and discovered Bell’s states you should drink it within 6 months of bottling…..so I’m chalking this up to bad advice.
The Verdict is in –>
No shortage of 22's available. Allagash was well represented
I’m happy to see more stores offering great craft beer showing up in the area and especially the Growler station. I live in West Ashley and Total Wine has all Bottles offers (in beer) and more, so I’ll still be shopping there, but if you are in Mt. P I’d recommend you give a stop and check it out.
