Where to Find Craft Beer in Myrtle Beach
Piggly Wiggly Market Common
Piggly Wiggly Market Common1120 Moser Dr., Myrtle Beach
(843) 839-0805
Ever since the Piggly Wiggly at Market Common opened on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force base it has been THE place to find craft beer at the beach. Up until management took the reigns of the beer section and took it upon themselves to offer the best selection of craft beer in Myrtle Beach, the best you could find were smatterings of sixes in grocery stores and wine shops around Myrtle Beach. Unless you wanted to drive south to Pawleys Wine & Spirits or Surf Beverage, there really was not much here.
The beer section is located in the far west corner of the store and the first thing you see is this corner. With Founders on the way out of SC, remaining six- and four-packs of Dirty Bastard and Centennial IPA sit next to a few cases of Stone Double Bastard. On the shelves you see here are the 16 and 22 oz. offerings from England, Germany and the Baltic states. Sam Smith, Warsteiner, Spaten-Franziskaner, and more. But against the wall something catches your eye...
The pièce de résistance - the growler station.
Truly a unique feature for a supermarket in Myrtle Beach and most likely all of South Carolina. When Michael Byrd installed this growler station, it caught the attention of not only the regional, but also the national media. Stories ran in the Charlotte Observer and then was picked up by ABCNews.com. The attention brought accolades to the store and to Michael as well. Unfortunately for Myrtle Beach beer enthusiasts, he was then promoted and transferred to another Piggly Wiggly. We hope he is doing the same good work for their craft beer section as he did for ours.
Growlers are available for $6 and prices for the beer vary. Beers that have been featured in the growler station include Stone's Double Bastard, Founder's Backwoods Bastard, Avery's DuganA, Bell's Expedition Stout, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Foothill's Sexual Chocolate and Hoppyum IPA, Moylan's Hopsickle, Sierra Nevada Glissade and many others.
Turning around from the growler station you face a display of Sierra Nevada and Bell's six-packs. The cooler on this wall contains six-packs from Unibroue, Flying Dog, Victory, Stone, Stoudts, Lion, Weyerbacher, Great Divide. This cooler carries most of the domestic higher gravity beers. Prices are competitive.
In the cooler on the far wall are their more local offerings. New South, Duck-Rabbit, Highland and Terrapin are found here.
Do a 180 and you're faced with another cooler filled with Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, Thomas Creek, Smuttynose, Brooklyn, Flying Dog, Harpoon, New Holland, Rogue and some Southern Tier. Another cooler beside this one carries Magic Hat, Lagunitas and Blue Moon.
Another great feature of the Piggly Wiggly's beer section is their glass collection. Mostly branded pint glasses, they also carry the must-have Duvel tulip glass as well as stemware from Allagash and New Belgium. The awesome Duvel gift pack lives here, too.
The open cooler at the front of the beer section is where the bombers live. An awe-inspiring collection of Allagash, Ommegang, Moylans, Stone, Avery, Bear Republic, Rogue, Southern Tier, The Bruery, Victory bombers await your shopping cart.
Going back around towards the growler station on lap two of what will probably be several laps around the beer section is the wall of Belgians. Corsendonk, Maredsous, L'Chouffe, Westmalle, Chimay, Duvel, Kasteel, Delirium, Gouden Carolus, and lots of others that this writer cannot either remember or spell correctly. I will not take this opportunity to show my ignorance when it comes to fine belgian beers. The Piggly Wiggly seems to have a nice collection.
And finally, the majority of the foreign import beers. Some good, some great, some not so much. It is nice to see a wide selection of Sam Smith, as it is a brand that this writer cut his teeth on back in the early to mid 90s.
In conclusion, if you are coming to the beach and want to find the largest selection, or get a growler filled with something fresh and delicious, definitely stop by the Piggly Wiggly at Market Common.