Singin’ River Brewing Co.

On the eastern edge of downtown Florence, Alabama, inside a converted industrial building along College Street, sits the brewery credited with kicking off the Shoals’ modern craft beer scene. Singin’ River Brewing Co. opened as the first craft brewery in the region, and more than a decade later it still feels like a neighborhood living room more than a production facility, with string lights, mismatched seating, and a taproom crowd that treats the place like a second porch.

The brewery was founded by Rob and Michelle Jones, a couple who both grew up near the Tennessee River that curls around Florence. Life pulled them away from the Shoals for a stretch after college, but they kept finding reasons to come home, drawn back by family and by the river itself. It was at one of Florence’s First Fridays, the monthly downtown celebration of live music, art, and food trucks, that the two actually met, on a blind date neither of them had much reason to expect much from. They married, started a family in Florence, and eventually decided to turn a shared love of good beer and the river into a business of their own.

The name itself is not incidental. It draws on a Yuchi legend describing how the Tennessee River carried its own song, sometimes soft and quiet, other times loud and boisterous depending on its mood. Singin’ River’s beer lineup tries to reflect that same range, moving between easy-drinking, sessionable styles and bolder, hoppier releases rather than settling into one lane and staying there.

IPAcalypse Now, a hop-forward IPA, anchors the year-round lineup alongside Golden Mane, a lighter lager built for long afternoons near the water, and Citracabra, a citrus-leaning ale that leans toward the brewery’s more approachable side. Seasonal releases rotate through names like Ghost Bridge, Leo’s Roar, Tiger Chainsaw Arms, and an Oktoberfest that shows up as the weather turns each fall. Taproom-only pours such as Lemon Lush and Lawn Patrol, along with a rotating slushee option on hot Alabama afternoons, give regulars a reason to stop in even when they already know the core lineup by heart. Non-alcoholic drinkers are not an afterthought either; Abita root beer and Athletic Brewing’s non-alcoholic beer share tap space with everything else.

The taproom itself doubles as an informal community hub. Rob and Michelle regularly open the space for private parties, corporate gatherings, and fundraisers, and during warmer months the College Street Farmers Market sets up nearby on the same block, turning the sidewalk out front into an extension of the taproom on Saturday mornings. Live music, comedy nights, and trivia rotate through the calendar, and the brewery has become a fixture for University of North Alabama pint nights, where students and faculty mix with longtime locals over a shared table.

Visitors curious about how the beer comes together can arrange a look at the brewhouse itself, tucked just behind the taproom, where small-batch equipment turns out everything that eventually lands in a pint glass out front. It is a modest setup by design, more workshop than factory, which fits a brewery that has always framed itself around gathering rather than scale.

For a first-time visitor to Florence, Singin’ River offers a good sense of what the town’s downtown has become over the past decade: walkable, unpretentious, and built around the river that gives the whole area its identity. Whether the stop is a quick pint after a walk along the Tennessee River or a full evening built around a show on the small stage, the taproom on College Street remains one of the more reliable rooms in the Shoals for settling in and staying a while.