In four days, the United States of America will celebrate what is technically called its…read moreSemiquincentennial, which is the word for a 250th anniversary, and which I had to look up, and which I then tried to say out loud in my car on the way here, three times, and failed each one. This is the irony the Founding Fathers, who were unusually articulate men, could not have anticipated: that the country they built on clear plain speech would arrive at its 250th birthday with a name for itself that sounds like a medical procedure. The brewery has posted a banner on their website that says "Come celebrate the 250th birthday of AMERICA with us!" which is a more honest description of the situation, and which I appreciated.
13 Stripes is a Revolutionary War brewery at Taylors Mill, built by people who are genuinely, non-ironically in love with the period, and it shows completely and without apology. Every beer is named for something from the war. The lager is called Not My King, which started as a jab at Budweiser and turned out to be historically accurate. It is not, however, a protest against a certain self-appointed king who resides (and is in the process of dismantling) the White House. The Hazy Double IPA is called Freedom Juice, at 8%, which is also historically accurate, in that freedom, when it finally arrives, tends to hit harder than you expected.
I ordered the William Penn, a Quaker Oatmeal Coffee Stout at 5.5%, on the principle that the only man who founded both a colony and a religious movement deserves to be a stout, and he did. I then ordered the Townsend, an English Style Pub Ale on nitro named after Robert Townsend, one of Washington's spies, who conducted his intelligence work in relative silence, which is appropriate for a 4.1% beer you drink quietly while everyone else is ordering Freedom Juice.
The food is from Defiance BBQ, which is not a casual name for a friendly food truck. The brisket sandwich is available Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays while supplies last, which is the kind of scarcity notice that makes people arrive earlier than they intended. The coleslaw comes with a note on the menu that reads "the slaw is the law," which I considered briefly as a reference to Judge Dredd and then accepted, because there are some sentences that resolve themselves.
The fries are cooked in beef tallow, a detail the 18th century would have found unremarkable and the 21st century has turned into a whole conversation. They were very good, and I did not start the conversation.
On July 4, 2026, the United States will be 250 years old, built in part right here, in South Carolina, where more Revolutionary War battles were fought than in any other state, which is a fact that most people driving past Taylors Mill do not know and would probably find surprising if someone told them in line at the bar. I finally partook in the Nathan Hale, an American Pale Ale at 5%. Nathan Hale, as you may recall, had only one regret. I had none.
