Southern Barrel Brewing Co.

My wife and I were in Port Royal visiting Shellring Ale Works (excellent!) and we decided to detour over to Bluffton and visit Southern Barrel because my wife is a big fan of their Wild Bramble sour. I’m trying to be a little sympathetic in my review because clearly something was amiss with the staff. My wife is allergic to strawberries and when she asked our waiter if two of the fruited beers had strawberry he responded, “I don’t know, and I doubt anyone else here knows either. ” Then we overheard the bartender tell another patron in response to their question, “I don’t know. I don’t really drink beer. ” Both of these responses fail for a response when you are a local brewery. Also we were sitting close enough to the kitchen to see that they were on the verge of a mutiny. Two kitchen staff walked out while we were there. I get that restaurants have bad days. I just couldn’t tell if our waiter was moving around with frantic understaffed energy, if scattered energy is just his vibe, or if he was disinterested. At one point I needed more napkins and when he brought them over he never even broke stride as he dropped them on our table.

My biggest hurdle with this visit is that the location lacked any of the atmosphere you would expect from a local brewery. It felt like an Applebee’s or TGIFridays or BJs or any other generic chain restaurant that happens to have their own beer on tap. My fried chicken sandwich lacked flavor and had so much sodium that it could have eradicated all the slugs in a 10 mile radius. My wife’s sandwich was missing ingredients, but with everything we could see going on in the kitchen and our waiter fluctuating between rushing around the restaurant and checking his phone, there was no way we were going to risk sending it back to get it fixed.

At the end of the day, I’m just disappointed that I spent $60 on such a lackluster lunch. We were trying to show some love to a local brewery that makes a beer we like, but it just felt very corporate. We’ll still enjoy Wild Bramble when we see it out but there’s no draw for us to return here.

Beer is average to good. Burger is not to be missed; better than any brewery burger I've had.

Pictured: jerk clucker (blackened) with fries

i’m seeing a lot of reviews about how bad the service is but we didn’t have an issue at all.she checked on us several times.anyways, now for the food part.i got a southern helles lager and it was pretty good.my chicken sandwich was decent but i think i’d try something else next time (it had a lot of sauce for my taste). My husband said his burger was delicious.if i’m close by again in the future i’ll definitely come back!

Southern Barrel is a great little place for a good beer, food, and music. Right now I’m loving their fall beer, Low Down Brown. It’s literally heaven in a glass! Delicious

3 out of 4 beers were great. Last one was definitely funky - bad brew or lines, idk. Food was amazing and brings this up to a 4 star. Music was too loud to talk to the person sitting next to me at my own table.

Great place to eat. We split a huge pretzel appetizer with beer cheese. Then had a classic burger cooked medium to perfection. The only complaint I would have, one of the waitresses was wearing spandex shorts and it was not fun watching her pull the legs of shorts down to get rid of wedgies on the front and back. Very unprofessional and slightly disgusting.

Horrible food choices everything is fried or high carbs unhealthy as can be. I won’t go back.

Great beer and food. Excellent service. The patio is very dog friendly. Our beers were excellent and our food was also excellent. They have a dog menu, which we usually eschew, but we just had to try one dish for our two dogs. Four thumbs and eight paws up for the entire experience!

Eh.had one beer (southern helles lager) and left. The lines tasted skunky like they haven't been cleaned in a long time.which if you drink a lot of brewery beers you know changes the whole flavor profile and crispness of the beer. They are super proud of the swag they offer $ 70.00 for a hoodie! I'll pass. I was hoping for a better outcome as I loved the fact that they had an outdoor firepit which I love. Sadly pretty disappointed by this place.

I love going on dates here or brining my family full of kids with me. The staff does well in both scenarios. The food choices are what you would expect for a bar. Not a lot of flare but the taste is good and seems fresh. The beer is tasty tasty. Damn Yankee is so yummy. Get there for a Friday or Saturday night and enjoy the live music on the patio. Prost!

Wait staff is GREAT!
Food is outstanding.
Atmosphere is very dog friendly.
A must if you are in the area.
This will be a regular stop for us.

Dog friendly on patio, including a dog menu and water. The 5 beers that I tried were all very good, much better than the taste and prices we experienced at the other microbrewery nearby.

Plus, the staff was very friendly and attentive. They also had either 6-packs or growler fills on all their beers and were reasonably priced. Be sure to try their Damn Yankee IPA, and my wife loved their sours.

Great craft beer with great prices. They do growler refills. While I didn't eat while I was there, I did see the food coming out to the tables, it looked good. It's nice to find a brewery that serves its own food.

Beer is solid, but not anything too adventurous or bold.

Food was hit & miss. We got the Old McDonald burger, which was great. The Bar-B-Cuban on the other hand was just awful. It would not have been were it not for the fact that the pulled pork was drier than the Sahara. It must have veen the last of a batch and had been sitting there for a long time because it was bad.

I wouldn't tell anyone not to go here. Our experience was fine aside from that, but do not get that sandwich. It's nothing too special either way, but definitely not worth risking getting bone dry pulled pork.

Great beer, outdoor space, and live music. Only annoyance was the inconsistencies with the paper menu and online menu. Should be updated.

Have watched this place grow and flourish over the last 5 years. The food is ALWAYS top notch. (Brie My Lover Wrap…yes….)
Plus, all the good beers and good vibes from employees makes this place worthy of coming back to for any occasion.
Hodge is the man!

Good beer here! Southern Barrel has a great selection. If you’re in the area, you owe it to yourself to try this place out. Nothing beats drinking beer, when it’s this hot out. The service was excellent and the prices are very reasonable. It was a little busy, but I guess that’s to be expected. I’ll come back, for sure.

Great brewery and nice selection of beer. My guest missed some beer alternatives like a cider or seltzer. Burger was delicious but the live music artist wasn't playing much.

Not a good experience at all. We walked in the door and there was no one there to greet us.
We stood there for a bit to figure out seating situation and was never greeted. We went out side to sit, no one came for a bit so we had to go inside to find out if a server comes out or not. We ordered nachos with brisket on it and fried Green tomatoes. The fried Green tomatoes were amazing. The brisket was horrible and should not have been served. It was tough and grizzly. We picked off the brisket and asked for pork. They brought out pork. They did not offer to take the plate and remake it, although I would not have required it.they did not offer. Server was friendly. My drink did not seem to taste correct when we asked for a manager she acted like we were interrupting her afternoon. Very unfriendly. She noticed we had the picked off brisket and said it looked awful and should not have been served but failed twice after speaking to us to take it away and left it on our table in front of us. This is only our second time here I'm not sure we will return for a third. I agree with the review earlier there should be a cider offered. I understand you don't Brew it and if you don't Brew it you should at least offer it. You don't distill liquor and you offer liquor. I wouldn't expect you to offer beer because you brew it here.

Heading into fall is great time to go to Southern Barrel Brewing Company as they open up the big garage doors and have fresh air through the whole place.

Had the beer cheeseburger was amazing. The pretzel bun and beer cheese really set it off. Friendly environment and staff. Will go back and try some more.

Not bad, drinks are only for drinkers. I'd you have a designated driver they're SOL! They want you to drink alcohol cuz they doing serve anything else! And ladies, be careful walking in the floor. Its very slippery! The floor wasn't wet, its just slippery!

I love that the Southern Barrel has a large selection of vegetarian items to chose from. The beer selection is great with a great outdoor porch to sit have a beer and some good food. Our waitress so fantastic and helpful with the vegetarian menu items.

Awesome experience! The food and beer are great, and the live entertainment was excellent. Dog and kid friendly.the outdoor seating is very comfortable if you do think sharing a picnic table style arrangement. If I lived in the area, this would definitely be a favorite spot. Can't wait to come back next time I'm in SC.

This place is really phenomenal. The food we had was amazing, especially the duck bacon wontons. They melted in your mouth. The beer was good and the ambiance was really pleasant, the wait staff super friendly and our food got out insanely fast and very hot. The dessert was even better! Plus it’s right across from the bowling alley so perfect to get drinks at right after.

Had a total of 6 tacos with grilled shrimp, and quite literally none of the shrimp were cooked through. Also very soggy fries that you could tell were rushed.

Went for Music Bingo on a Wednesday night. Glad I got there early enough to find two seats at the bar. Staff was friendly and helpful with choosing what to eat. Ordered tacos and sweet potato waffle fries. Very delicious! Even won the last round of Music Bingo!