It’s hard to believe it’s only been 15 years since Alabamians first were able to legally quaff craft beer. Today, the state boasts dozens of breweries and brewpubs, with more rapidly coming online. In addition to serving draft beer for on-premises drinking, most also sell beer to go in 64-ounce sealed growlers (thanks to eased regulations over the last few years). Several also package their beers in cans.

Breweries in big cities and college towns seem to get all the attention and publicity, but there are great breweries all throughout Alabama. Here’s a guide to several breweries that are off the beaten path but still worth the drink.

Cross-Eyed Owl Brewing Co. (Decatur)

A cancer diagnosis (since treated) inspired home brewer Trey Atwood to open this Decatur brewery with his wife, Erin. The name is a nod to British pub names like The Drunken Duck or The White Lion, and the couple’s love for owls. The taproom and beer garden at Cross-Eyed Owl (aka XEO) is family-, dog- and presumably owl-friendly. The beer selection includes styles rooted in the United States, Great Britain, Mexico and Germany, including a mild Gose (pronounced GOES-uh), a sour wheat beer flavored with coriander and chamomile.

Cross-Eyed Owl Brewing Co. has a friendly taproom and beer garden in Decatur. (Cross-Eyed Owl / Facebook)

Folklore Brewery and Meadery (Dothan)

In 2013, Jeremy Pate started brewing the first legal commercial beer in Dothan since Prohibition. Folklore also produces several styles of mead, an alcoholic beverage fermented from honey, and sometimes with fruit. The taproom and the production facility are on an old family farm. The core beers include Grateful Red, a malty German-style ale, and Front Porch Pale Ale, an American pale ale brewed with German malt and West Coast hops.

Folklore Brewery and Meadery is situated on an old family farm in Dothan. (Folklore Brewing / Facebook)

Goat Island Brewing Co. (Cullman)

Two home brewers and four beer lovers opened Cullman’s Goat Island brewery in 2015 with the slogan, “Life is too short to drink baaad beer.” In tribute to Cullman’s heritage, the brewery makes German- and American-style lagers and ales. Award-winning beers include Duck River Dunkel (silver medal at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival), Sipsey River Red (gold at the 2016 Alabama Craft Beer Championship), and Richter’s Pils (gold and second overall at the 2017 Alabama Craft Beer Championship). The pilsner is based on a 19th-century recipe from a Cullman saloon keeper.

Main Channel Brewing Co. (Guntersville)

The folks behind Main Channel Brewing Co., which overlooks a branch of Lake Guntersville, invite customers to “sit back, relax and enjoy the beer and the water.” Its draft lineup rotates among German-, Belgian- and American-style ales and lagers including hazy New England IPA and the dark Dunkel Weisse made from wheat. Seasonal favorites include strong Belgian Tripel and Juicy Double IPA. Flights are served in funky boards shaped like a fish, guitar or canoe paddle.

Red Clay Brewing Co. (Opelika)

The eight-year-old brewery’s name pays tribute to good ol’ Southern red clay, while one of its brews is named Big Swamp Stout in honor of its hometown (Opelika is a Muskogee word meaning “big swamp)”. Red Clay has collaborated with a Napa Valley vintner in the past to create the Miura Double Master series, which included a pale ale made with imported chocolate and aged in tequila barrels, black pilsner made with Chinese Forbidden Rice and Meyer lemon, and stout brewed with coffee and aged in rum barrels. Find the beers, both usual and unusual, in the downtown Opelika taproom.

Red Clay’s Big Swamp Stout is named in honor of the company’s hometown, Opelika, a Muskogee word for “big swamp.” (Red Clay Brewing Co. / Facebook)

Singin’ River Brewing Co. (Florence)

Inspired by the Tennessee River and the music city on the other side, Muscle Shoals, Singin’ River Brewing Co. features more than a dozen draft beers and several in cans. The regular and seasonal brews have racked up several medals at the Alabama Craft Beer Championships, including Citracabra (gold 2018), Shoals Oktoberfest (gold 2017), strong Belgian-style Tiger Chainsaw Arms (gold 2016), IPAcalypse Now (silver 2017) and Ghost Bridge black ale (silver 2017). Its Swamper Porter ale is a homage to the famous studio session band that laid down the soulful “Muscle Shoals sound” on records by artists, including Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett.

Twisted Barley Brewing Co. (Jasper)

Jasper’s first brewery features a taproom and outdoor seating downtown in a two-story 1920s-era building that once held a hotel and later a hardware store. Sample five-ounce and pint pours of its five flagship brews, including Momma’s Margarita Gose, a sour wheat beer spiked with essences of lime peel, orange peel and sea salt. The lineup also includes ales that are aged in wooden barrels and experimental small-batch brews.

This story originally was published on the SoulGrown website.