Area Guide

About Town: Breweries Around Kiawah River

For generations, people have gathered with friends and family to relax and bond over a cold drink. Over the past decade or so, the emergence of craft breweries has made it even easier to do so in your own backyard, or at least a short drive away. Luckily for Kiawah River’s residents, Johns Island is no exception, and two of the city’s most popular local watering holes can be found nearby along Maybank Highway.  

While each brewery has its own style, atmosphere and distinctive brews, we recommend these two Johns Island breweries that make for perfect weekend gathering spots: 

Low Tide Brewing
The name “Low Tide Brewing” was conceived while founder, Mike Fielding, was kayaking on the waters around Johns Island in 2012. His dream of starting a brewery began long before that when he was home brewing in the basement of his fraternity house. After a short stint in Australia and New York, Mike settled back into sea island life and hit the ground running. In 2015, co-owner and brewery operations manager, Andy Elliott, joined the team and the duo opened the doors of Low Tide on March 12, 2016. They began dedicating themselves to not only creating delicious, unique beers, but also crafting custom beers in collaboration with nearby restaurants and bars. The brewery has a full-service production facility with both indoor and outdoor seating and a weekly rotation of food trucks for snacks during drinking sessions.
Core beers: Tide Chaser IPA, Sweet Caroline Kolsch, Tura’Lu Irish Red, Aloha Beaches and many more

Estuary Beans and Barley
Founded in 2020 by Charleston-local Scott Harrison, Estuary Beans and Barley (EBB) is an artisan beverage company with a passion for bringing the best coffee and beer products to the Southeastern United States. This café and tasting room uses high quality ingredients for its IPAs, lagers, seltzers, nitro cold brew and more, all brewed in –house. Harrison is a veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces and also founded TidalFlow, a nonprofit project that provides maritime training to empower disabled veterans and the families of fallen service members to obtain certified boating hours for the U.S. Coast Guard Boat Captain application process. Part of the proceeds at EBB are donated directly to these veterans and their families.
Core beverages: 25 Island Wide – Hazy IPA, TidalFlow – West Coast Style IPA, Strawberry Smash (Wine specialty drink), Drip Coffee 

If beer doesn’t strike your fancy, then Charleston Distilling Co., which is located right next door to EBB, is the spot for you. They offer tours and tastings of their small-batch spirits.  

So, what are you waiting for? Head on down to one of our favorite breweries and try some locally made beer and spirits for yourself.