The Beer Hall of Fame Beckons?
by Kurt Epps—the PubScout March10, 2021
Pam Breedlove has taken her first step towards Beer Immortality.
And, as one who has already been admitted into that august fraternity, I welcome this pert, charming former teacher/school principal into our ranks.
My claim to Beer Fame came when my caricatured likeness appeared on a now-discontinued beer from NJ (is there a message to me there?) called Stickenjab, made by Tom Baker and Heavyweight Brewing.
Pam is taking another route.
You see, Pam is an ardent beer lover who attended not one, but TWO of my “get acquainted” beer tasting sessions in our close-knit community in OIB when I first moved here. And, given our love of Ninkasi’s Nectar, we have become even better acquainted since. A skilled crafter, she also makes personalized Christmas decorations for those in the community.
And she apparently also crafts names for beers.
A short time ago, a new SC brewing operation named Crooked Hammock opened in a neat place called Barefoot Landing just off Route 17. When I visited the operation to sample the beer, I sat outside in the Biergarten and enjoyed an IPA. It was tasty, but it was, at the time, just called an IPA.
Pam, who pays close attention to new brewery openings and events, noted recently that Crooked Hammock was having a contest to name its new IPA, so being the sport she is, she submitted an entry, which was “Made in the Shade IPA.”
“I was going with the whole laid-back, hammock, beer-sipping motif,” she allowed when I spoke with her. “You know, kick back and relax and you’ve got it made in the shade.”
Makes sense to me. And apparently it made sense to the folks at Crooked Hammock who notified Pam after a while that her suggestion had made the top ten, and shortly after that, that she was in the top five of the votes being cast by the public for best beer name.
Turned out she and another entrant submitted the exact same name—and BOTH won the contest, though Pam may have been the only one to show up to the brewery’s kickoff of the beer and claim her fame.
And fame, which can often be evanescent, was not all she won. The fledging brewery presented her with a hefty “Swag Bag” of brewery merch for her efforts, and a couple of free pints for her and her husband Jim.
Jim, however, being a devotée of beer like BudMiller and gin like Beefeater, gave his to his bride Pam, which she accepted with alacrity. She also accepts his exceptional Southern cooking skills at home, since “all I make for dinner is reservations.”
She had obviously not saved her “Made in the Shade” for my visit to her home, but in true cerevisaphile fashion, she whipped out a crowler of a Bill’s Front Porch 7.4% “Hittin’ Switches” beer she had garnered when Bill’s Food truck came into the development.
It was delightful, and even moreso because I was chatting with two salt-of-the-earth, very nice folks while drinking it.
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