Cottontown Brew Lab has been a member of the Columbia beer scene for a couple of years now. Originally a production-only facility, they opened up an outdoor Beer Garden over the summer at their location in one of Columbia’s historic downtown neighborhoods, the eponymous Cottontown. Their goal is to embrace the “Famously Hot” nature of Columbia, South Carolina, and present a core line-up of beers that are enjoyable even on those unbearable high humidity, near-100 degree days that dominate the area for most of the summer. I’ve had the opportunity recently to try a couple of offerings from their core line-up.

Their Blue Zip Tie IPA comes in at 7.6% ABV and 80 IBU, and strikes a remarkable balance of flavors and aromas. I got plenty of maltiness (I believe caramel malts) and dark sweetness to go a mild hop bite and notes of pine and plenty of aromatics. Again, generally light in nature, and pouring a fairly clear golden color, I found this to be a nice IPA whose balance makes it different from many of the others.

Second up is the Carolina Crush Session IPA. It pours a hazy yellow-gold color, and clocks in at 4.5% ABV and 25 IBU. Also fairly light and fairly straight forward in flavor, with hoppy pine and dank notes. They also nailed the “trick”, as I felt like I was getting citrus zest notes throughout, but the brewers claim that no fruit is used in the production of this beer. A solid session beer.