In search of daytime brew
By Colin Burch
For Weekly Surge
I went down to see Laura McCoy at Dead Dog Saloon - the Coastal Grand mall location - with a burning question: what do daytime beer drinkers chose to drink when they're drinking at a mall out-parcel?
It had been a while since I had received a pint from Laura McCoy. A few short years ago, I would regularly drop in at Shamrock's Sports Bar and Grill at 2510 Kings Highway, where she used to be the chief barkeep. Her husband, Mike McCoy, these days a member of The Necessary Band, played some solo gigs at my coffeehouse, the departed Living Room Coffee Bar and Used Books, back in the day.
So it had been a while since I had seen the McCoys, until we met two weeks ago at the funeral of a survivor of the Utah Beach landing on D-Day. His name was Bill Finlayson, and he had been a longtime fixture - and the unofficial doorman - at Shamrock's. A good man from our "Greatest Generation." Raise a glass.
When I got to the Dead Dog, Laura McCoy suggested a Dark Side of the Moon. I am embarrassed to say I was unaware of this one. It's a twist on the old Black and Tan. Imagine a frosty pint glass with Blue Moon Belgian White on the bottom and Guinness on the top. As I drank it, the two beers remained separated, but a sip brought the sweetness from the Blue Moon through the bitterness of the Guinness.
Nice.
So I got around to asking Laura McCoy my burning question: what beers do people drink here during the day?
The answer was a bit disconcerting to us both: Bud Light. This from a woman who had, just one day prior, celebrated her birthday with approximately two gallons of Guinness.
Bud Light, indeed.
"If you had Bud Light and Jagermeister, you could run a bar," she said with a laugh.
Truer words were never spoken in Myrtle Beach.
Close second? Yuengling, popular "because it took so long to get down here," having gained its fame in and around Pennsylvania.
Laura McCoy will be your friendly dayside barkeep Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. She'll tell you about The Necessary Band's upcoming DVD, filmed during the band's performance with the Long Bay Symphony at The Market Common grand opening (see Party Pix on the back page of Surge for visual evidence).
S.C. sweet tea vodka
A few months back, I got to be a judge in FireFly Vodka's Myrtle Beach Signature Drink competition, held at Droopy's at 5201 North Kings Highway.
FireFly Vodka, based in Wadmalaw Island (near Charleston), adds a hint of muscadine wine to five-times distilled vodka. It's a mellow turn for vodka, plenty good on the rocks with no mixer.
Continuing with its South Carolina theme, the company now has created FireFly Sweet Tea Vodka, infused with locally grown tea along with sugar cane from Louisiana.
The new liquor will make its debut at the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association's second annual Trio Dinner, held at 6 p.m. Monday (April 14) at the Sheraton Myrtle Beach Convention Center Hotel.
FireFly Sweet Tea Vodka will be available in liquor stores the following day, Tax Day, as good an occasion as any to drink.
Contact Colin Burch - the Beerman - at beerpour@yahoo.com or visit his beer blog at http://maltyhops.blogspot.com.