That's my bike.

In November 2008, Scott Shor and Rich Carley opened the Charleston Beer Exchange. It was the first of its kind in South Carolina, a retailer totally dedicated to craft beer. Two years later, the store is ranked as the #2 beer retailer in the world for 2011 according to Ratebeer.com.

That is an amazing accomplishment. Greenville shall now reap the benefits of their expertise.

On December 31, 2010, the Greenville Beer Exchange opened its doors, a mere seven hours before the dawn of 2011. “It took us longer than we thought, but we were bound and determined to open in 2010,” Rich told me while working the Greenville store earlier this month on the Monday night of the Great Snowstorm of ‘011, while most of the city was shut down. “We can’t afford not to be open.”

Co-owner Rich Carley explains how awesome this beer is to a couple customers in the "far-out beer wing." Only one of the customers is visible, but there were two. The other one was a lot smaller than the nearer guy.

That night Nicole and I stopped in after having dinner at Barley’s, which is adjacent to the GBX, a very convenient pairing for beer aficionados. We picked up 2007 and 2008 vintages of Rodenbach Oak Aged Flanders Red. Yes, they were both amazing.

Cameron fills a growler of Ommegang Zuur for me from among the 16 taps.

It’s those type of rarities that the guys at the Beer Exchange bring to the table. In addition to the extraordinary variety of bottles, they have 16 taps to fill growlers. You heard me. Sixteen.

Scott and Rich took all that they learned opening the Charleston store and put it into the Greenville location. It’s a bigger store and has more taps than Charleston. And while they aren’t doing any events yet, they do have plans to do beer tastings and rare beer events as they do in Charleston.

Rich is working the store for the next few weeks while they get everything settled. After that, they are turning the store over to Cameron Read, the general manager, and Zach Shollenberger.

While Cameron and Zach have big shoes to fill, I think they’ll be ok. After all, Cameron recommended the Rodenbach and that was a hit. He’s off to a good start in my book.