Drinking Beer in Charlotte

[tozmervo]

As the beer culture has developed here over the past two-three years, I've realized how much I take for granted the phenomenal support that local restaurants have given the local brewers. I've traveled to other cities pretty much expecting a local beer on tap with no such luck. It's hard to find a restaurant in center city, and increasingly all of Mecklenburg County, that doesn't have at least ONE tap with a Charlotte beer.

[ah59396]

Agreed^. We have a fantastic, dare I say top 5, local craft brew scene. And the cooperation is phenomenal. It's gotten to a point that if you are a bar in CLT and you don't carry local brews, I consider you an afterthought.

[49er]

There has been a tremendous amount of misinformation about this from what I can tell. Most of what the city is trying to prevent seemed to be large monolithic bottling companies from locating in or near neighborhoods and in TOD zones. From a zoning standpoint, its not always cute microbreweries and taprooms that want to locate in these areas but sometimes the equivalent of a factory. Charlotte Beer had a pretty good summary of the issue:

 

I'm pretty sure that Charlotte is well aware of the positives breweries bring from an economic, tourism and cultural standpoint.  

 

http://www.charlottebeer.com/2013/02/20/cbj-microbrewery-text-amendment/

[Missmylab4]

Wow that was a poorly written article by the CBJ. I love our local beer scene

[swh1972]

Spent last Saturday afternoon splitting time between Birdsong and NoDa. Both were very busy, probably due to the weather. Very glad to have a number of Craft Breweries open in Charlotte. These have fully caught on, and appear to have growing support.

[nonillogical]

Probably a noob question, but how close are any of our breweries to bottling and regional distribution, or is that even a goal? I figured that OMB may be trying to get there, and I hope that NoDa does just because they're my favorite. Considering the wide availability of some other NC beers in stores like Big Boss, Red Oak, Highland, etc, it would be nice for everyone else to get introduced to our breweries at some point. 

[HopHead]

Probably a noob question, but how close are any of our breweries to bottling and regional distribution, or is that even a goal? I figured that OMB may be trying to get there, and I hope that NoDa does just because they're my favorite. Considering the wide availability of some other NC beers in stores like Big Boss, Red Oak, Highland, etc, it would be nice for everyone else to get introduced to our breweries at some point. 

 

OMB does bottle distribution of their Copper, Captain Jack and Dunkel (I believe) brews. They sell those in 3 packs (20 oz bottles I think?). You can find them in most Harris Teeters throughout Charlotte and the specialty shops like Good Bottle Co. I know Triple C has started bottling their Baby Maker DIPA. Not sure how widely distributed that will be. Like you, NoDa is my favorite brewery. I would kill for them to start bottling beers like Hop Drop n Roll or Coco Loco. From a few people that I've talked to, they are getting ready to start distributing their beer in South Carolina which I think by state law requires a beer distributor to deliver the beer (unlike North Carolina). So hopefully that means we'll see NoDa in bottles at some point. They also had a few specialty releases in bottles (Pacific Reign - Imperial IPA) that were sold at specialty shops. 

[tozmervo]

NoDa has done some special bottle runs, but the equipment to do large-scale bottling is extremely expensive and takes a lot of space.

 

Birdsong love over here. I'd take Mexicali Stout to the desert island.

[HopHead]

Found out some info on NoDa Brewing. Looks like they will soon start bottling their "Top Shelf Series" beers like Imperial Coco Loco. And will then start moving towards bottling their mainline offerings after that. Apparently they recently purchased a beer bottling line to start this up. The bottles will be available at the brewery and bottle shops around town (e.g. Good Bottle Co, Common Market, etc). 

[ah59396]

I'm okay with them bottling, as long as they stay local.  I've always enjoyed the idea of not being able to get a beer unless you go to the area it is brewed in.  It gives it an added mystique for me.  Plus, that's what bottle shares are for.

[HopHead]

Also, another new local brewery opening in Charlotte this year: Dukbone Brewing Company. No info on where they will be located in the city though. I know there was recent talk of a brewery opening in the Plaza Midwood area, but not sure if these are the same guys.

 

https://www.facebook.com/dukbonebrewingco

[tozmervo]

First I've heard of Dukbone, but the P-M one you're referring to is/will be http://freerangebrewing.com/ - haven't heard any updates on their quest to find space recently

[HopHead]

June 1st will the the inaugural Charlotte Brewer's Fest held at the OMB Brewery: https://www.facebook.com/CLTBrewersFest

 

I know what I'm doing that day now!  

Edited March 15, 2013 by wend28

[atlrvr]

First I've heard of Dukbone, but the P-M one you're referring to is/will be http://freerangebrewing.com/ - haven't heard any updates on their quest to find space recently

 

http://www.dukbone.com/

 

They have a website now, and in fact say they are looking for space in Plaza-Midwood (and devote some pics of Plaza Midwood signage as well) to open in 2013.  Sort of cool to think each urban 'hood could have a couple of breweries.

 

I'm really excited about NoDa's Coco Loco being available by bottle.

 

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Good Bottle Co, but I went in a couple of weeks ago just to get a variety of porters to try and it was a pretty cool set-up, with a small bar that you can sit and talk beer with the owner/other customers.  I kept thinking the whole time, if they just had one signature food item, like a giant soft pretzel, this place would be amazing.  Definitely not a full food menu, but just one awesome speciality would do the trick.

[Guest]

http://www.dukbone.com/

 

They have a website now, and in fact say they are looking for space in Plaza-Midwood (and devote some pics of Plaza Midwood signage as well) to open in 2013.  Sort of cool to think each urban 'hood could have a couple of breweries.

 

I'm really excited about NoDa's Coco Loco being available by bottle.

 

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Good Bottle Co, but I went in a couple of weeks ago just to get a variety of porters to try and it was a pretty cool set-up, with a small bar that you can sit and talk beer with the owner/other customers.  I kept thinking the whole time, if they just had one signature food item, like a giant soft pretzel, this place would be amazing.  Definitely not a full food menu, but just one awesome speciality would do the trick.

I live in Brooklyn and we have a great place in Park Slope that I would love to see Good Bottle turn into. They have an EXCELLENT sandwich menu, 16 local beers on tap and cooler after cooler after cooler of craft beer. 

http://www.bierkraft.com/

[HopHead]

I venture over to Good Bottle quite a bit. They have some the best selections of NC brews around and have a pretty healthy growler selection as well. I think what Chris (the owner) has going is a pretty good set up. He has a good rotation of brews and regularly does tastings with various breweries from the Southeast. Last week they had a Session beer tasting with JJ Red Hots handing out samples -- great dogs by the way. I agree that if they had a signature food item there it would be good. But I think they also do a good job of what they do now, which is just providing a nice variety of craft beer. To me if they partnered with someone like Common Market to provide sandwiches, that would work.

[nonillogical]

Common Market is competition though as far as craft beer sellers so I don't see that happening (and their sandwiches while good aren't anything special enough to export, IMO), but they could definitely get some of our ever-expanding fleet of food trucks to hang out there on busy nights, like Salud, World of Beer and several of the breweries do. It seems like Good Bottle and JJ's are actively trying to establish a partnership though according to their facebook pages and I think thats a great match. 

[hambone931]

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is moving:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/04/olde-mecklenburg-brewery-buys.html

[Guest]

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is moving:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/real_estate/2013/04/olde-mecklenburg-brewery-buys.html

:-( can't get their by train anymore :-(

[tozmervo]

methinks you might have misunderstood something, the brewery is only move a couple of lots down to the intersection with Yancey St. should actually be a marginally shorter walk.

[Guest]

methinks you might have misunderstood something, the brewery is only move a couple of lots down to the intersection with Yancey St. should actually be a marginally shorter walk.

LOL, sorry, I live 500 miles away, and I haven't been south of Clanton in Years. 

[tozmervo]

500 miles? that would make it a real pain to get to by train, for sure!

[Guest]

500 miles? that would make it a real pain to get to by train, for sure!

Actually check that, I looked on Google, I live 625.4 miles from OMB 

[HopHead]

Interesting move by OMB. Sounds like they are on the verge of a massive expansion... They just expanded their current facility a few years ago to accommodate a party room and increase their brewing facilities. 

[Mobuchu]

I'm wondering if part of the move to the bigger site (with more outdoor space) will allow them to have a much larger patio and expanded kitchen/dining.  They could in theory have a setup similar to VBGB now except they will be serving their own beer.  As they follow the German "Reinheitsgebot", it would be great if they became a true Beer Hall and served more traditional German food as well making it even more of a destination.