Our Favorite Southern Breweries

Southern Star Brewing
Conroe, Texas 

Cans are now all the craze for freshness, and Southern Star satisfies with their expanding 12-ounce six packs line, including Pine Belt Pale Ale, Bombshell Blonde, and Buried Hatchet Stout. Located about 40 miles north of Houston in the small town of Conroe, the brewery made its first batch of ales in 2008. southernstarbrewery.com

Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company
Kiln, Mississippi 

Mark and Leslie Henderson founded Mississippi’s first and only brewery since Prohibition in 2004. Hurricane Katrina interrupted their production for a while, but since resuming business in October 2005, the couple has built a loyal regional following for their beers such as Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale (thought to be the first beer in the world commercially brewed with whole roasted pecans). Lazy Magnolia’s Jefferson Stout uses sweet potatoes as one ingredient. lazymagnolia.com

Cigar City Brewing
Tampa, Florida 

Tampa native Joey Redner made beer, sold beer, and wrote about beer before opening his microbrewery in 2007. Joined by brewmaster Wayne Wambles, Joey uses local ingredients to turn out a variety of flavors such as Guava Grove, a pale-colored, Belgian-style ale fermented with guava for a sweet, spicy taste; Jai Alai India Pale Ale with flavors of apricots and peaches; and Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale with hints of caramel and toffee. cigarcitybeer.com

Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery
Farmville, North Carolina 

Duck-Rabbit’s founder Paul Philippon, a former philosophy professor, started brewing dark beers in 2004. Paul based his unusual Duck-Rabbit logo on an optical illusion he found in a book. “Dark beers tie into the logo because they play with people’s expectations,” he says. “Some people have preconceived ideas of what a dark beer is.” His smooth-as-silk Milk Stout reminds his customers what a great dark beer is all about. duckrabbitbrewery.com