The only time “I ate sushi on a bus” is an ok statement.

Earlier this month, we attended Sushikon’s Brewshi Tour. Sushikon was started by the same people who brought us Octobachi downtown, which is sadly no longer. When I first heard about this tour, I thought it sounded like a really fun, new, and unique idea. It’s sort of like a food-truck-meets-brewery-tour-meets-sushi.

If you close your eyes you can pretend like you’re in Japan!

This was only their 3rd tour ever and they have many more planned for the next few months. We went to three local breweries and were served a sushi meal in between each stop. We met at the bus depot downtown around 6 pm and left to go to our first brewery, Freehouse Brewery.

That’s what we’re talkin’ bout.

If you haven’t ever been, I would recommend making the trek just for the view alone; it’s absolutely gorgeous!

Plus, dog friendly! Win-win!

We tried two half pints while we talked to frequent brewery goers and looked at the equipment. Freehouse had a gorgeous view of the Ashley River, but was a tad small, so it gets crowded very quickly. The beers were very refreshing and crisp.

Half pints are like mini-muffins: they don’t actually count as real life.

After about 30 minutes at Freehouse, we headed back to the bus to enjoy our first round of sushi: sushi nachos with fresh, local tuna, imitation crab, avocado, carrots, cucumber and caviar on top of blue corn tortilla chips. The nachos were tasty and light after our first round of beers.

You heard that right. Sushi. Nachos.

While eating sushi nachos, we headed toward our second brewery, Tradesman on James Island. Driving down Folly Road, you would never suspect the building behind a gas station to hold many, delicious beers.

Oh, hey, secret Brewery. Nice to meet you!

This two-story building has different taps on the different levels, and each beer is named after something trade related, and each tap has a tool as a handle.

The closest I’ll ever get to being in a tool shed.

Some of the beers we tried were infused with different flavors that we’d never seen anywhere else. Including a coffee beer that was not a stout or porter, but more of a light beer. One of the beers that is frequently on their menu is called Coco Nuts & Bolts made with toasted coconut, which I will definitely be going back to try as they had run out.

Is it just me or are these half pints getting bigger?

As we made our way back to the bus, we had a platter of sushi waiting for us. The sushi tasted fresh and was very filling, but wasn’t overly flavorful or unique.

At least it looks pretty!

They also turned on these cool lights inside the bus once it started to get dark outside.

Disco sushi bus! New band name!

We made our way to the last brewery, Low Tide on Johns Island. This brewery was definitely the largest and had the most equipment.

Low Tide; High Appreciation.

It’s a new building that is decorated with a very beachy feel. We were impressed with the beers we had as they were all unique flavors, especially the Pete’s Coconut Chai, which is a darker beer with notes of coconut and chai. For a dark beer, it was surprisingly light.

Still no word on who this “Pete” fella is, though.

When we got back on the bus to head downtown, a dessert sushi was waiting for us. We were not very impressed with the dessert. Fruit sushi isn’t something I would normally order on the menu, but I also wouldn’t want something that’s supposed to be sweet wrapped in seaweed. I think if they had a green tea ice cream, mochi or even mango rice pudding, it would have been a better alternative to what they served.

Hey, you can’t win them all.

Overall, we had an awesome time on the Brewshi Tour, but I think they have a few areas they could improve. I think the overall price is too expensive, being about $100 per person after taxes. The food was good and I loved that the tuna was fresh and local, but I’m not sure the food was worth the price of the tour. Visiting the breweries was great and being able to try their different beers on tap was a fun way to be introduced to each brewery. It wasn’t as much as a tour as I expected, the breweries were a little too small for that. The tour guide on Sushikon has a lengthy resume, working with many breweries, and is incredibly knowledgeable. He was available for questions during the brewery visits, but we didn’t actually get any official tours of the breweries, which I think would’ve been really fun. I think they also will need to have a rotating brewery list because as a return customer, you wouldn’t want to go back to the same brewery each time.

Still have no idea what any of this stuff does.

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