DEBELLATION BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs,

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

A Norsemen Viking themed brewpub-sportsbar, DEBELLATION BREWING COMPANY is stationed at a tan corrugated steel Industrial building right off Route 95 just outside Savannah in the affluent coastal town of Richmond Hill.

Upon entering, the wood-floored main space features an L-shaped wood lacquered bar (with 20 draughts including outside ciders and meads) servicing block wood community tables, upper observation deck and fire-pitted back patioed pavilion. Two central chandeliers center the high-celinged wood paneled barn house interior and two TV’s sidle the beer menu above the tap handles.

Displaying its ancient Norse culture, Debellation’s Viking ship mural, walled deer antlers and stacked logs offer interestingly designed Medieval relics to the wood-decked pub.

Owner Dave Goodell’s easygoing fare had a definite European flare on my post-Christmas ’25 journey. I tried all homemade brews except Tree Nail Light Lager.

Well-realized, offbeat peculiarity, Spicy Garlic Pickle, a briny pickled garlic blonde ale, retained a sourly acidic vinegaring for its curious mustard seed, peppercorn and jalapeno subsidies.

An efficient lemony banana-clove onrush secured Mjolnirweizen Hefe, leaving sour apple, dried plantain and mild herbage on its sourdough bottom.

Tobacco-roasted cereal graining embossed Erik The Red Roggenbier, a German rye ale with dewy peat reaching mild pumpernickel-rye finish.

Toasted amber grains and roasted cigarette crisping led Fenair Red Irish Ale, picking up spicy red-orange fruiting and light maple sugaring.

Candy-glazed fruited pale ale, Frigg’s Cran Apple, let honey-spiced red apple sweetness flourish alongside tart cranberry saucing.

Mild juniper berry bittering teased the rye and pilsner malting guarding Finnish farmhouse ale, Berserker Viking Sahti, relegating light herbal spicing.

As for the one dark ale, nutty coffee roast inundated nitrogenated Naglfar Nitro Coffee Stout, placing lightly salted soy graining across dark-roast hops and debittered black malts.

BACK RIVER BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

TYBEE ISLAND, GEORGIA

Just a few miles West of the Atlantic Ocean in the sun-kissed beach town of Tybee Beach, BACK RIVER BREWERY serves stylistically conservative small-batch brews and “casual eats.” Located above a Mexican restaurant, the cozy aquamarine outpost became the islands’ first brewpub, May ’22.

Eight aluminum-chaired wood tables sidle the 15-seat wood lacquered bar. Windowed tanks store the approachable Back River suds.

My wife and I visited late December ’25, downing four welcoming draughts after a day at the beach. However, we ran out of time and missed out on About Lager Time, Blood Moon Rising Gose, I’m So Juicy IPA and Old School Cool East Coast IPA

Dry grassy-hopped herbage draped the lemony blueberry scurry of What Is A Kolsch, a brisk pilsner-malted moderation.

Easygoing Festive Fruits, a tart cranberry-tangerine-induced sour ale, let ancillary white peppered herbage and limey salting contrast its sugary vanilla creaming.

Juicy fruited Bongwater Bay Session IPA placed mild lemony orange peeled grapefruit bittering next to pineapple-candied tartness, tangerine tanginess and herbal spicing atop lightly creamed caramel malts.

Aged in unspecified wine barrels, boozy Just The Trip Tripel corralled tart blackberry, vinous white grape, lemon lime and oaken cherry.

NORTH SOUTH BREWING COMPANY

United States Brewpubs

FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

On a clear sunny Friday afternoon in December ’25, my wife and I drifted into the South to soak up the sun and a few suds in Savannah, Hilton Head and Tybee Island. But our first stop was Fayetteville to take in the newly formed NORTH SOUTH BREWING COMPANY, opened May 31, 2025.

North South owner James Orlando began homebrewing in 2011 and along with his wife, Alicia, grew up in New England, met in Savannah, then moved to Fayetteville (soon hooking up with local head brewer Jonny Isaacson).

Crafting highly approachable and easygoing stylistically fare at their beige yellowed cement-floored barn house facility, the Orlando’s spacious neo-Industrial pub features a silestone-topped, L-shaped, 20-stool bar anchoring silver metal chaired tables strewn across the bright blue interior. A benched grass patio adds further seating.

A backwall projection screen TV has the BYU-Georgia Tech bowl game on while we consume eight North South ales.

For a light-bodied opener, dry beige cleared Lager Than Light let spritzy salt-watered lemon sourness spike its mild sourdough bottom and latent metallic sheen.

Rustic grain penetration gave Saaz-hopped Czech One Two, a Bohemian pilsner, its Scotch-daubed corn whiskey pulse.

Lemony banana-clove settled above white wheat sourdough breading of Sweet Fraulein, a tidy Noble-hopped pilsner-malted hefeweizen.

Musky lemon fizz prickled grassy hop astringency and diacetyl pale malt buttering of Grain Juice Kolsch, scoured by dried maize snips.

Spiced banana sweetness lingered softly for Chains Of Krampus Tripel, revealing subtle lemon custard, orange marmalade and blueberry wisps at the butterscotch-candied finish.

Perfumy orange-peeled peach, pineapple and mango tanginess gained vanilla-creaemed oated wheat buttering for Haze Girl Hazy IPA, leaving mild grass-stained pine musk on the Citra-Mosiac-hopped tropical fruited entry.

Dry Cold Winter Cabin Stout secured its nutty coffee bean creaming with dark cocoa powdering grazing dark-roast hop char.

Pudding skinned dark cocoa spread across Hello Darkness My Old Friend, a diffident Imperial Stout scattering musty black cherry, dry burgundy, anise and walnut snips across the dark chocolate base.

RUNAWAY TRAIN BREWERY

United States Brewpubs,

Right along the historic D & M train tracks near the center of Honesdale, RUNAWAY TRAIN BREWERY opened its spickets August 11, 2023. Described quite accurately as a ‘brewhouse saloon,’ an olden rail house welcomes patrons to the converted grey warehouse.

Runaway Train’s elongated yellow wood top bar spreads across the family-friendly pub, serving slate top tables and plastic-chaired tables along the concrete floored main space. A hearth-warmed lounge area and left side tanks fill out the light Industrialized, pipe-exposed, chandelier-ceilinged interior. A wood-floored billiards room is available upstairs.

My wife and I journeyed to Runaway Train early December ’25 on a frigid Friday eve. Dominated by lager-related fodder, we tried eleven of the fifteen homemade beers available (missing out on three IPA’s and a schwarzbier).

For starters, traditional Czech pils, Ticket To Ride, a smoothly sessionable barley-roasted light body, stayed subtle with spicy floral herbage and limey soapstone residue.

Crisply dry pilsner-malted lager, Declaration, caressed its lemony orange spritz with peppery Saaz hop herbage – an easygoing flagship.

Equally sessionable helles lager, Golden Spike, slid musty lemon souring and subtle herbal spicing across biscuity barley malts.

As for off-dry Railside Lager, its sour lemon musk countered mineralized pilsner-malted barley.

Scotch-licked barley, dried maize and lemondrop herbage fronted Honesdale Hauler, a soft-toned festbier with sedate vanilla creaming.

Brisk lemon fizz tickled Coach Car Kolsch, a Noble-hopped moderation with musky floral herbage topping buttery biscuit base.

‘Simple pub ale,’ Wet Your Whistle, retained light bodied appeal as mossy spelt graining drifted thru mild floral hop bouquet.

Another pillowy moderation, Honesdale Rail Cream Ale, hustled creamed corn sugaring for nutty rye breading and grassy herbal hops.

Tobacco roast crisping embraced dewy peat for lightly caramelized Irish red ale, Irish Conductor, benefiting from kilned barley toasting.

Nitrogenated traditional English dark mild, Last Train Home, relegated caramel toffee sweetness for Bakers chocolate tartness and nut-skinned dried fruiting.

Dry Irish stout, Lucky Ticket, placed dewy truffle earthiness inside charred dark-roast hops, picking up bittersweet dried fruiting at its cocoa nibs base.

BOLERO SNORT / IMPRINT STICKY SITUATION PASTRY STOUT

Beers A-Z, ,

Rich chocolate fudging soaked in bourbon with chewy marshmallow creaming sweetened further by Thai banana and cinnamon roll adjuncts for decadent barrel-aged pastry stout. Swiss Miss chocolate, maple syrup, espresso martini and toffee pudding illusions plus distant raspberry, prune and raisin licks surge forth at the chocolate bourbon banana breaded finish.