Charlotte's Craft Breweries and Beer Selections
We’re big fans of a nice adult beverage to wind things down after a hard day’s work, who isn’t right? If you aren’t familiar, the folks over at allaboutbeer.com are having the North Carolina Brewers Celebration on June 27th at BB&T park. Obviously, our favorite local breweries will be in attendance we thought we would take this opportunity to familiarize you guys with the major players here in the Charlotte area. We haven’t visited all of these places personally, but its definitely on our to-do list! If you’re a fan of good beer, stay close to home and check these breweries out before picking up your next 6-pack of Bud Light (ew).
New Sarum Brewing Company – Located in Salisbury, NC this brewery was founded in 2012 and the company is based around creating great craft beer. You can read about all of their beer offerings here, but personally, I’d like to check out their Red Ale.
High Rock Red Ale – 6% ABV Description: “The base of this red ale is stylistically influenced by the English Pale Ale. The use of Marris Otter and Rye gives this beer a slight biscuit flavor and spice note. The English hop additions contribute a sweet hop flavor and aroma.”
Bird Song Brewing Company –Located at 1016 N Davidson St, Bird Song was founded in 2011 and has made quite the impact in craft beer scene. You can visit their tap room Tues.-Fri: 4:30-10 pm, Sat 12 pm-10 pm and Sun: 12 pm – 8 pm. The awesome thing about Bird Song is that they also support some other small breweries. There’s no kitchen but you are welcome to bring whatever you’d like to eat with you which is awesome if you swing by Price’s Chicken Coop first (we’ll save that for a different blog post). Pets are welcome as well, which is amazing! They have a plethora of seasonal selections coming out at different times of the year, plus a really cool “Flight Series” that are special versions of their beers that have been barrel-aged; these are extremely limited and once they’re gone, they’re gone. Check out their full line-up of beers here, but hands down the must try is the Jalapeno Pale Ale.
Jalapeno Pale Ale – 5.5% ABV; Description: “The Jalapeno Pale is in a class by itself. Using our Free Will Pale as a foundation, we add a generous amount of fresh, hand-cut jalapenos mixed with a hint of awesome. Don’t be scared to try it! The Jalapeno is refreshing, crisp, and pairs well with the peanuts in the tap room!”
D9 Brewing Company- Located in Cornelius, this craft microbrewery has been growing since 2009. Their taproom is open 5 days a week, Tues-Fri. 2 pm-10 pm, Sat 12 pm-10 pm and Sun 1 pm – 5 pm. If you’re into yoga, definitely check out Yoga and a Beer on Tuesday’s at 6:30. Price is $10 and includes 1 beer and a yoga session with Kortni Campbell. Check out their Fanatical Ales selection here, from the descriptions sign me up for the Southern Tea Ale.
Southern Tea – 5.0% ABV; Description: “Hazy Golden American Wheat Ale with bold orange and black tea aroma giving way to a rich wheat and citrus flavor that’s followed by a black tea after taste. Mouthfeel is creamy with a medium carbonation.”
Ass Clown Brewing Company – Located in Cornelius (10620 Bailey Road), Ass Clown Brewery is open Tues. – Thurs. 3 pm – 9 pm, and Fri-Sat. 12 pm – 9 pm. They have various events and bands on most Saturdays, you can check out their event schedule on their home page. With a huge flavor offering, you’re sure to find something that will strike your fancy with selections from porters, stouts, IPA’s, ales, wheat, lager and even an interesting sour selection. They don’t include any detailed descriptions of their beers on the website but some I want to try just based off the names are the Bacon Oyster Stout, Burley Peach Black IPA and the Chocolate Pumpkin Brown Ale.
Triple C Brewing Company – Located at 2900 Griffith Street in Charlotte, Triple C is open Tues. – Fri. 4-9 pm, Sat 12-9 pm and Sun 12-6 pm. While their menu of beer isn’t huge, their selections include a Golden Boy Blonde, Light Rail Pale Ale, Road to Nowhere Porter, Smoked Amber, Greenway IPA, 3C India Pale Ale, Zest-A-Peel and the most intriguing of all Baby Maker DIPA. They also include two seasonal beers Kind of a Big Deal and Hyzer Hefewiezen.
Lake Norman Brewing Company – Located at 159 Barley Park Lane in Mooresville, the LKN taproom is only open Thurs-Fri 4-8 pm and Saturday 2-8 pm but that’s probably an easy window to fit into your beer drinking schedule. LKN Brewing is relatively new to the scene opening in March 2014 and rotate beers keeping ten on tap at all times. They also pour a few select beers from other North Carolina breweries to keep the selection interesting. You can check out their full list of beers here, but the one I’ve got my eyes on is the Lake Norman Coffee Stout.
Lake Norman Coffee Stout – 5.5% ABV; Description: “Made with coffee roasted right here in Mooresville by Black Powder Roasting, this nicely balanced stout is infused with rich coffee flavor. All you need are some eggs and bacon and you can have a perfect beer breakfast … coffee included.”
Lenny Boy Brewing Company – Located at 2224 Hawkings Street in Charlotte, Lenny Boy serves organic kombucha, gluten free beer, wild ales and many other selections on their 14 taps. Hours for the taproom are Thurs & Fri -4-9 pm, Sat 12-9 pm and Sun 12-6 pm. On Saturdays they offer a one-hour yoga class right in the taproom and Sundays at Noon you can join the Lenny Boy Run Club. Of course, afterwards you get to grab one of their several wild ales or organic beers. I’m all in on the Holy Moly Wild Ale.
Holy Moly – 4.4% ABV; Description: “ This wild ale crisp with a dry and spicy finish that will leave you shouting ‘Holy Moly!’ Our open-top fermenting method yields a pronounced ‘kick’ of local flavor. Ingredients: NC Sweet Potato, Molasses, and spices.
NoDa Brewing Company – Located at 2229 N Davidson street you can grab a beer at NoDa’s taproom any day of the week, but if you really like to know everything about your beer you can take a free tour Monday-Friday at 6 pm, Saturday at 5 pm and Sunday at 3 pm. Taproom hours are M, Tues, Thurs – 4-8:30 pm, Wed 4-9 pm, Fri 4-9:30 pm, Sat Noon-12 pm, and Sun 1-6 pm. You can find NoDa brewing Companies beers all around the city in various stores and bars as well, check out their brewfinder. The Hop, Drop N Roll won the Gold Award at the World Beer Cup so obviously if you haven’t checked that one out yet, it should be first on your list!
Hop, Drop N Roll IPA – 7.2% ABV; Description: “2014 World Beer Cup Gold Award Winner, American-Style IPA. Hops in your face. Crisp, mouthwatering, American citrus hops dominate for an ideal IPA character. It’s hopped before, during and after the boil with late boil additions of Citra and Amarillo for a complex flavor profile. The rich golden color comes from a blend of English and American base malts accented with substantial amounts of Vienna and Wheat malt. This is the beer that started it all for NoDa Brewing.”
The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery – Located at 4150 Yancey Road, Olde Mecklenburg opened its doors in March 2009. Of all the breweries listed so far, they have the easiest hours of operation to remember, 7 days a week from 11 am- 10 pm, in addition to their beers you can grab a bite to eat from the Brauhaus. Catch a free tour on Saturdays and Sundays at 2, 3, and 4 pm (no need to register), private tours also available. They recently invested $2 million in a new bottling machine and draft machine you can read about here. With an ever rotating selection of seasonal beers, Ive got my eyes on the Hornet’s Nest (Im a sucker for a good history lesson).
Hornet’s Nest – 5.4% ABV; Description: “At OMB, we love our local history almost as much as we enjoy brewing our premium local beer. While most people think Hornet’s Nest is an ode to Charlotte’s basketball team, it’s actually the nickname England’s General Cornwallis gave Charlotte when he met more resistance here than anticipated during the Revolutionary War. So why did we choose this opaque, subtly sweet Hefeweizen as Charlotte’s tribute beer? Because it’s awesome! Otherwise, it wouldn’t be much of a tribute.”
Wooden Robot Brewery – Located at 1440 S Tryon Street in the Historic South End, Wooden Robot isn’t officially open yet but are hoping for a late June launch. Currently, they only have two beers listed on their website and isn’t clear how many they will add, if any. I’ll update this post when we find out more information but you should definitely check them out at the NC Brewers Celebration. I’d give the OverAchiever a shot!
Overachiever Pale Ale- 5.3% ABV; description: “Overachiever exceeds expectations by packing the citrusy, juicy hop character of our favorite IPA’s into a obsessively drinkable pale ale. Brewed with pale and caramel malts, oats, Simcoe and Centennial Hops, and our house ale yeast.
The Unknown – Located at 1327 South Mint Street, the taproom is open Wed-Fri 4-10 pm, Sat 12-10pm and Sun 12-8 pm. The Unknown has 4 year round selections, two seasonals and 5 selections from their “Now-or-Never Series.” I’ve never been here and their website isn’t clear on when the seasonal “Silverback” is available, I still think it looks most appealing to me.
Silverback American Stout – 6.5% ABV; Description; “This is a stout with 7 grains and all West Coast hops. It has a beautiful, tan head and the malts create a smooth roasted taste and chocolate notes. It finished with a slight pine and a little more hops than most traditional stouts.
Sycamore Brewing- These guys won't be in attendenace on June 27th but they deserve a mention anyway. Located at 2161 Hawkins street, Sycamore's taproom is open Mon-Thurs. 4-10 pm, Fri 4-11 pm, Sat 12-11 pm and Sun 12-4 pm. You won't find a specific list of beers they brew on their website but they do boast a staggering 28 taps that change regularly. Catch the Hot Box serving up food on Saturdays or a rotating list of other food trucks on Sundays. Make sure you put these guys on your short list for another one of Charlotte's great craft breweries.
Check out the entire line-up of all the North Carolina based breweries that will be in attendance at www.allaboutbeer.com/gather-for-beer-/nc-brewers-celebration/