City Brew Tours has a great Charlotte presence, but offers tours in a number of other cities as well.
I love to explore breweries in other cities, and a recent trip to Charlotte provided the perfect opportunity. I visited a few breweries on my own and had a chance to visit breweries with City Brew Tours of Charlotte.
I decided to take the City Brew Tours’ Beer and Pizza Tour, which included three beer stops, with pizza at the second stop.
The tours start at the Westin Hotel in downtown Charlotte, convenient to public transportation and other downtown attractions. We loaded the van, and our guide Vinny drove us to our first stop, Armored Cow Brewing, located in a shopping area north of the city. (One of our group members forgot the “no open-toed shoes” rule and had to stop at a nearby clothing store to buy a pair.)
Armored Cow is named for military-issued milk in cans. Vinny taught us the “wet, wet, sip, sip” method for tasting beer, which gives the taste buds time to appreciate all the nuances or a beer. The technique involves wetting your pallet twice with the beer, at one-minute intervals, then taking your first two sips at one-minute intervals.
Guide Vinny pours Crushin’ It orange seltzer at Armored Cow.
Guide Vinny (left) talks with tours guests at Armored Cow.
Taps at Armored Cow Brewing in Charlotte
Armored Cow is known for gluten-free beers, which will excite those who have to avoid most beer due to gluten sensitivity. Whole Lotta Rosie (a tribute to Rosie the Riveter) is a caramel cream coffee blonde ale, gluten-free, with a sweetness to it.
We toured the production facility, where we learned the ins and outs of beer production, from the mash tun to the brew kettle to the fermenter. Next, we tasted Sleepless in Seattle, an imperial Tiramisu stout with a great flavor. We wrapped up the tastings with Crushin’ It, an orange creamsicle seltzer that is also gluten free, which turned out to be a favorite of our group, with its crisp, orange taste.
Next, we took a long drive to the Southend of Charlotte, where we visited two more breweries. The first was Protagonist, where we ordered a pint with our pizza. The pizza – a meat lovers and veggie for us – paired well with the Julia sour (orange zest and rosemary). We left not one slice of the two large pizzas we ordered, along with harambe bread, an Italian pull-apart bread with cheese and pepperoni.
Tour guest pulls away a piece of Protagonist Harambe, Italian bread made with cheese and pepperoniOrdering beer to go with pizza at Protagonist
Our final stop before returning to the hotel was Lower Left Brewing, also in the Southend area. Just ahead of a rainstorm, we tasted Juicy McJuiceface, a hazy New England IPA; Six-Hour Tour, an imperial coconut blonde ale; Tech Noir porter and Bravetart strawberry shortcake sour.
I really liked the tour’s strategy of offering everyone tastes from a small pitcher of beer. That way, you didn’t feel pressure to consume something you didn’t like or sample more than you really wanted. With each pour, there seemed to be enough beer left over for those who really wanted more.
Lower Left Brewing has lots of outdoor space to enjoy spring weather.
Vinny was a fun guide and offered interesting information about all the breweries we visited. I thought his “wet, wet, sip, sip” method of beer tasting was very helpful in allowing us to see how our perception of a beer changed. City Brew Tours is a franchise, so look for other tours in cities around the country.
Three more Charlotte brewery recommendations:
Legion Brewing near Charlotte’s South Park Mallis a lively, fun place to eat and drink, inside and out. Their food and beer menus are both outstanding. You can visit them in three other Charlotte locations as well. 5610 Carnegie Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28209
Suffolk Punch, South Park: During warmer weather, you’ll find most guests to this brewery location enjoying the outside seating, and quasi-outdoor seating, with large doors open to catch the breeze. They have a nice beer selection, and a food menu that includes some things you don’t always find on a brewpub menu, including a Korean barbecue bowl. 4400 Sharon Road, Unit G23D, Charlotte, NC 28211
Sycamore Brewing’s new location features lots of outdoor space, a coffee bar and food.
Sycamore Brewing and Beer Garden, Southend is a new, really large location, with food, beer and a coffee bar. The location sits next to the light rail tracks, and I feel sure there’s a station nearby. Excellent beer – I recommend the Lager with Lime to go with a house made pizza. 2151 Hawkins St., Charlotte, NC 28203
Our group of 11 gathered at Lynnwood Brewing Concern in early February, around a long table in the taproom. Each guest chose four beers for their flight, and had their order filled at the bar. While tasting, everyone enjoyed appetizers from Wilson’s Eatery, sister next-door restaurant to Lynnwood. The pimento cheese is great on pork rinds or tortilla chips, and the salsa and guacamole were very good also.
During our tasting, we learned about the history of watering holes in the neighborhood, dating back to the late 1700s, before Raleigh was even a city. Today, the area has become a beer and cider mecca, home to at least five breweries and the city’s first cidery, with more to come in the near future.
For our second stop, we made the short walk to nearby East Bower Cider Co., stopping briefly to learn a little history of the Whitaker Mill neighborhood. East Bower was having their annual Wassail Day, celebrating hot, spiced cider with music, dog adoptions and crafts vendors.
Pork rinds pair well with pmento cheese from Wilson’s Eatery.
The group found tables indoors and everyone tasted two ciders – Dry Twig cider and semi-sweet Ginger Agave. A few tried the warm, spiced cider (Wassail). The drinks were well-received, with some preferring one to the other, and nearly everyone was surprised at how much they enjoyed the cider. The group continued getting to know each other, even after the tour time was over. Some moved on to explore other businesses in the neighborhood and vendors selling items for Wassail Day.
Join our next tour in this neighborhood will be March 9, 1-3 pm. Purchase tickets at here while they last!
On a trip to Asheville in 2016, we headed out to visit Highland Brewing, a 40-acre site on the east edge of town. Though it was still early – before 9 pm – the brewery’s taproom was already closed, and we missed our chance to have a beer and hang out for a while. (Lesson 1 about Asheville breweries: Pay attention to the hours!)
We were back in Asheville recently and planned a little more carefully for a visit to the brewery that included a tour and tasting (tours are offered Fridays through Sundays). We gathered in the taproom with our tour guide Douglas, who took us through the ins and outs of the brewery.
Highland holds a key place in the history of this Beer City USA as the first craft brewery in town, opening in 1994. Today, the Asheville Brewers Guild has 40 member breweries, accounting for about 10% of all breweries in the state of North Carolina.
On our tour, we tasted as we strolled through the facility. First up, Highland’s signature Gaelic Ale, then a dark seasonal beer. We got a look at different shades of malt and learned how the variations from dark to light can influence the flavor profile of beer. We finished our tour in the Annex (merch store), where we tasted AVL IPA, Pilsner and Oatmeal Stout.
Tour guide Douglas Mostyn shares his passion for Highland Brewing.
Pallets of aluminum cans are stacked to the ceiling.
Post-tasting empty glasses in the Annex.
We toured the brewing facilities, saw the lab where Highland monitors beer quality, and finally visited the packaging area, with both canning and bottling lines for distribution. In the brewery, pallets of pre-labeled aluminum cans were piled to the ceiling, ready for the canning line.
Highland’s founder Oscar Wong opened the first brewery location in downtown Asheville, but when Highland outgrew that facility, they moved to the current location, once home to Blue Ridge Motion Pictures, a sprawling film studio. It’s history also includes stints in manufacturing (veneer flooring and ball bearings) and as a railroad depot.
In recent years, Wong handed over the leadership of the brewery to his daughter, Leah Wong Ashburn. As CEO, she has expanded the events space at the brewery, which is now booked through the end of this year. She also rebranded the beer and doubled production in 2017-18 and again 2018-19. The brewery also decided to limit distribution of its signature beers to just four states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
This old water tower at Highland Brewing bears the name of a former tenant, Blue Ridge Motion PicturesSand volleyball courts at HighlandOutdoor stage and biergarten
In addition to the spacious taproom and patio space, the brewery caters to outdoor enthusiasts with sand volleyball courts, a disc golf course and hiking trails. There is also an outdoor concert venue and biergarten with lots of picnic tables.
The site doesn’t serve food, but there are usually food trucks onsite to tame your hunger. And you should always be able to find a seat in the spacious taproom. The next time you visit Asheville, make the trek to East Asheville, or visit Highland’s newest taproom in downtown’s historic S&W Market.
Highland changed its branding under new leadership, from Old Scottie on the right, to the brand shown on the coasters to the left.
Highland Brewing 12 Old Charlotte Highway, Suite 200 Asheville, North Carolina 28803
Note: This article appears in the latest issue of Screw it Wine.Download the complete issue to learn more about NC beer and wine.
They say that beer sales are good in good times and even better in bad times. And that would make sense when you look at the number of Triangle area breweries that opened second and even third taprooms during COVID.
Two years ago, North Carolina breweries, wineries and restaurants remained closed under a state emergency declaration that began with the spread of COVID 19 in the United States in March 2020. It was the end of May before breweries were able to reopen to the public.
At least 10 Triangle breweries opened additional taprooms during or right before the pandemic shut businesses down. But according to Chris Creech, owner and head brewer at Durham’s Glass Jug Beer Lab, without COVID, there might have been even more.
Before COVID, brewers understood the profitability of selling beer through taprooms, rather than distributing beer to grocery stores and other sales outlets. While a six-pack might cost $10-$12, with only a slim profit margin going to breweries, there was a higher profit margin in selling $5-$6 pints of beer in a taproom, Creech said.
Glass Jug Beer Lab Glass Jug Beer Lab’s original location on the edge of Research Triangle Park had already expanded one time in 2018 from a bottle shop with a tasting bar to a much larger space in the same shopping center, with more indoor space, as well as the bottle shop and an outdoor biergarten.
A large outdoor biergarten helped Glass Jug RTP draw guests back to the brewery during COVID.
That expansion served them well during COVID, Creech said. Having the bottle shop allowed faithful Glass Jug customers to continue buying take-out beer while the taproom was shut down. Bartenders made the transition to beer delivery drivers, while that was allowed. And once Glass Jug reopened, having the outdoor space made customers feel more comfortable about getting back out.
Glass Jug began looking for taproom space in downtown Durham before COVID and didn’t want to lose the space they had identified near Durham’s Central Park. The ongoing pandemic allowed the business to get concessions to pay lower rent, in the event businesses were forced to close again.
The new taproom opened in March 2021. This was the third construction project for the owners and it went smoothly, despite skyrocketing lumber costs. And then, “we thought we were opening at the end of the pandemic, but (the variants) Delta and Omicron proved us wrong,” Creech said.
Glass Jug Beer Lab expanded from this RTP location to a downtown Durham location.
Glass Jug’s downtown location has some outdoor space, but Creech is hoping that Durham will soon open the Central Park as a “social district” where drinks from nearby businesses can be consumed. Such a measure would essentially turn Durham Central Park into a biergarten for Glass Jug customers, Creech said.
Gizmo Brew Works Across the Triangle, Raleigh’s Gizmo Brew Works was looking for a downtown Raleigh location to add a taproom, along with additional space for brewing, said Joe Walton, co-owner, chief operating officer and head brewer. But the cost to lease space in the area was too high to accommodate the production space.
One day on a visit to Chapel Hill, Walton was walking through a familiar downtown alley when he saw a “for lease” sign. He didn’t realize at the time that the space was the former home of Chapel Hill’s iconic Rathskeller Restaurant. In its heyday, customers lined up down the alley, spilling out onto Franklin Street to dine on “the Rat’s” pizza and lasagna that many remembered from days as UNC students.
Gizmo’s new Chapel Hill location is in the old Rathskeller Restaurant space, but with windows added.
The building’s owners had spent time and money to bring the space up to code, and it was ready for a new tenant. About the same time, Gizmo’s Raleigh brewery was offered a lease on nearby space for beer production, a move that kept all the brewing in one location. Problem solved.
The Chapel Hill location – much brighter than the former cave-like Rathskeller — opened to the public in December 2019, only to close again in March 2020 due to COVID. As people seek out breweries and other entertainment, traffic to the taproom has grown. And though Gizmo doesn’t serve food, the brewery partnered with two Chapel Hill restaurants to allow customers to order food that is delivered to the brewery.
But Gizmo didn’t stop there. In late March, the brewery opened a third taproom in a Durham shopping center off 15-501. It is also home to BB’s Crispy Chicken restaurant, a yoga studio, a coffee roaster and 25 outdoor murals.
Lonerider Brewing Co. Sumit Vohra, CEO of Lonerider Brewing Co., opened the brewery’s second location in Wake Forest in July 2019. Both the Raleigh and Wake Forest locations offered drive-through beer sales when the businesses were shut down in 2020, which helped Lonerider keep its staff employed. The brewery also sold hand sanitizer as a service to the community, at a time when the product was hard to find on store shelves.
Lonerider planned to open a downtown Raleigh location before the pandemic, but those plans fell apart during COVID. Vohra was a regular at Raleigh’s The Point restaurant at Five Points, and during the pandemic, the owners let him know they wanted close the business. They asked if he was interested in taking over the space.
“The Point was my Cheers bar,” Vohra said. “We asked ourselves, ‘is this the right thing to do for Lonerider and for our future?’ So we said yes, and we learned how to operate a restaurant.”
Lonerider’s Five Points location in Raleigh is it’s first with a restaurant.
The biggest problem with opening a new space during the pandemic was the availability of cash, Vohra said. “We had to take a big risk. Because we were opening during the pandemic, we were not eligible for (federal COVID support) money. Everyone was struggling and suffering from it. Everything was inefficient, from supply chains to employees getting sick,” he said.
The new Lonerider location has lots of outdoor space, a benefit during the pandemic for diners and beer lovers. From tables on wooden decks to picnic tables in the yard with bistro lights strung above, the outdoor space attracts families and dog owners. Outdoor TV screens offer viewing opportunities for sports fans.
The food at the new location features some pub favorites like brick oven pizza and chicken wings, as well as items cooked with Lonerider beer, like Saloon Pilsner battered Atlantic cod in fish and chips or a fish sandwich and oven roasted chicken served with Shotgun Betty Hefeweizen lemon herb gravy.
This spring, Lonerider plans another expansion outside of the Triangle, to Oak Island on the North Carolina coast. If all goes well, it should be open for much of the summer beach season.
How has the pandemic changed the brewing industry? Vohra says those changes remain to be seen. Already, he knows that costs associated with brewing are rising, especially the price of grain and aluminum cans. So one change consumers will see is an increase in the price of beer, he said.
Still, pandemic business has been good enough to encourage a number of Triangle area breweries to expand. The list below includes some of the biggest expansions.
Triangle Brewery Expansions
Gizmo Brew Works of Raleigh has new taprooms in Chapel Hill (2019) and Durham (2022).
Glass Jug Beer Lab of Durham/RTP has a new taproom in Durham Central Park (2021).
Bull City Ciderworks, Durham, Greensboro and Lexington, opened a taproom in Cary in 2022.
Lonerider Brewery, Raleigh, opened a second Hideout in Wake Forest in 2019, and a taproom and restaurant in Raleigh’s Five Points in November 2020.
Bond Brothers Beer Co. of Cary opened a second Cary location in 2021 that is also a music venue.
Raleigh Brewing of Raleigh openedin Cary’s Arboretum in May 2020.
Cotton House/Triangle Beer Co. of Cary opened a new location in the former Jordan Lake Brewing site in Cary in June 2021, where they serve food.
Barrel Culture ofRTP/Durham opened a Raleigh/Wakefield taproom in spring 2020.
Fullsteam, which wasDurham’s second brewery in 2010, opened a taproom that serves food in Boxyard RTP in 2021.
Fortnight of Cary opened a second taproom, “Terminal B,” also in Cary, July 2019.
Oktoberfest is one of the brewery’s most popular seasonals.
A brewery that opened just three years ago is creating a “bright spot” in downtown Mebane. Bright Penny Brewing is recognized for its hospitality, beer and food, and the brewery is making a name for itself in this Piedmont North Carolina town.
The popular local brewery – Mebane’s first — is located in the old Purina Rice Flour and Feed Mill, and the building still bears the Purina name. Owners Cristina and Jeremy Carroll and Jason Brand opened the brewery in May 2019.
The term“Bright Penny” is said to originate from the trenches of WWII. When soldiers were making homemade alcohol, they would drop a penny in the concoction, and if it cleaned up, they knew there was alcohol in it. What better way to honor that history than a nod to the tenacity of a soldier’s desire for a drink? The brewery’s Marra Forni brick pizza oven is covered in copper-colored disks that look like pennies.
There is outdoor seating, including a large patio under a tent that we didn’t see during our visit. There was a band playing inside, which is the case on most Saturday nights.
The brewery has 16 taps with a core lineup of beers, along with a house cider produced only for Bright Penny by Flat Rock Cider Company. The regulars include two light lagers, Buena Onda Cerveza and County Line Lager, along with three styles of IPA, including Fog Watch Hazy IPA. The list also includes June Bug Porter and Offended Opinion Amber. Bright Penny Pub Ale, another core beer, won a silver at NC Brewers Cup competition last year.
Seasonal beers include a popular Oktoberfest for fall and citrusy New England pale ales for summer. Smaller batch releases include stouts, like the Autumn Hayride and Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout.
We were excited to see that Bright Penny still had its Oktoberfest on tap when we were there, along with a diverse selection of other beers. The Oktoberfest was so popular this fall that they brewed a second batch and sold out of that as well as the first.
The food menu is a little unusual, including a variety of “Grandma’s deviled eggs.” Head chef and general manager Tory Williams, who is not from around here, said that deviled eggs weren’t part of his own food traditions. But Jason Brand wanted to try the eggs on the menu. Turns out they were so popular that different varieties of deviled eggs were added (now there are nine), and you can even choose a “flight” of eggs to try several different recipes.
You won’t find a burger or buffalo wings here (though they do have a buffalo chicken dip), but you will find a variety of gas-fired pizzas, small plates and salads with seasonal ingredients. Both the pizza and salad we shared that night were excellent, as was the bruschetta appetizer.
Some great pizzas come out of Bright Penny’s Marra Forni brick pizza oven, which is covered in copper disks that look like pennies.
“We didn’t want to just have good beer. We wanted to be known for great beer AND great food,” Williams said.
Williams describes the brewery as family friendly, with something for everyone. There games to share and cornhole outside. And the outdoor space is also dog friendly.
The brewery’s popularity downtown prompted the team to open a second taproom – Bright Penny Brewing Outpost — at nearby Tanger Outlets off I-85 where they will offer food soon. Sounds like a great place to grab a beer at the end of a day of shopping!
Spend a day in this unique setting tasting mead, beer, cider, coffee and spirits
Guests enjoy beverages at outdoor tables in the Beverage District.
When I was in graduate school in 2009, one of my classes took a field trip to Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, where used cooking oil was converted to biodiesel. When I visited the Chatham Beverage District recently and saw the signs for Piedmont Biofuels, the memory came right back to me.
The once industrial complex that became the Beverage District is now home to mead, beer, cider, coffee and spirits, as well as a small farm that provides produce for a vegetarian restaurant. Lyle Estill, owner of Fair Game Beverage and Distillery, describes the transformation of the area as, “a happy accident.”
The complex and surrounding acreage started as a chrysanthemum farm in the 1950s. From 1986-96, it became the “Cold War relic” of an aluminum smelting plant, but that operation never quite took off. So the plant was abandoned until Estill and partners bought it in 2005 to produce biodiesel.
In 2013, Fair Game moved into the space as the 13th distillery in North Carolina and the first to do barrel aging. Clientele footwear changed from “steel-toed boots to stilettos,” he said.
Estill became an owner of Fair Game Distillery in the 1990s and began to see a new purpose for the district. At the time, Becky and Ben Starr of Starrlight Mead were looking for a bigger home and began making plans to build in the district.
Today, Fair Game Beverage offers rotating taps of local beer and cider from the district’s Chatham Cider Works (which doesn’t yet have room for its own tasting area) and BMC Brewing Co., as well as other local beverage producers. Fair Game also sells its own spirits (with distillery tours on Saturdays) and a nice selection of estate wines from across North Carolina.
“The thing is booming,” Estill says. On any weekend afternoon, crowds fill the parking areas and wander to the meadery or into the beverage district. The space feels almost like a Spaghetti Western set, with buildings on two sides of an open space, where guests stroll by.
Part of the district’s charm is outdoor artwork, including a shiny pondscape with dragonflies and birds, as well as giant green frogs. Hearing loud noises at the end of the property? You’ll find people playing darts and throwing axes at a wooden wall.
Starrlight Mead opened its new tasting room and production facility in October 2018, after about four years of planning and building. The new facility doubled the size of both the production and tasting room space from their original location at Chatham Marketplace.
On Mead Day back in early August, crowds filled Starrlight Mead’s tasting room and porch to sample the honey wine that comes in a variety of flavors, from traditional off-dry mead to blackberry, as well as coffee, lavender, ginger and more. A holiday favorite is spiced apple, which can be served warm.
“Business is increasing to levels even better than pre-pandemic,” Becky Starr says.
The Starrs started their meadery in 2010 after tasting mead at Renaissance fairs. The meadery purchases 7 tons of honey each year (roughly 400 hives’ worth) to make their mead. Three hives onsite help visitors understand that bees are the equivalent of grape vines for mead production.
At Starrlight Mead, you can experience a guided mead tasting at the tasting room bar or enjoy six meads in a flight on your own. Once you’ve decided which ones you like, buy a bottle to enjoy in the rockers on the covered porch.
Hungry? Copeland Springs Kitchen offers vegetarian bowls and small plates with seasonal faire like squash pie, zucchini and corn fritters, and sweet and spicy cucumber salad. Their food is available to take out to any of the beverage businesses in the district.
Around the perimeter of the Beverage District are fields where Copeland Springs Farm raises produce. A walking trail around the property goes by the farming areas.
On Sept. 25, Starrlight will hold its annual Meadfest, a mini-Renaissance Faire. The free, family-friendly event will be mostly outdoors.
Tarheel Taps & Corks 