Craft Beer Collective

January 2012: beer news in review

I’m not always able to make the monthly wrap up of North Carolina beer news but this month was JAMMED full of news so I had to put this together.

GREAT LAKES & PORT CITY Enter new markets
Alexandria, VA based Port City Brewing entered the NC market followed by this Great Lakes press release stating that the Ohio brewer will have beer in Triangle area bars beginning February 20th.

BRAD MILLER TOUR BIG BOSS & NATTY GREENE’S
A mini beer tour for Small Brewers Act supporter Brad Miller who met with several North Carolina brewery owners. Several days later Miller stated that he will NOT seek re-election.

ncbrewing.org
newsobserver.com
indyweek.com

DRAFT MAGAZINE NAMES BEST BEER BARS
An annual review of the nations best beer bars reveals six beer bars in the top 100: Busy Bee, Brewmasters & Raleigh Times in Raleigh. The Thirsty Monk in Asheville. Growlers Pourhouse in Charlotte. And last but not least Harrika’s Tea and Beer in Swansboro was the dark horse on this race!

http://draftmag.com/

ROTH BREWING FEATURED IN DOWNTOWNER
Click to read the article: raleighdowntowner/

A WINE & BEER STORE TO OPEN IN RALEIGH
After a the new New Tyler’s Bottle shop had opened in Raleigh a the Ridgewood Wine & Beer Co announces it will open on February 1st. Website

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com

NC Brew 2 U

Yes, that is me in the Casktoberfest T shirt.

NCBrew2U is a new online beer store specializing in North Carolina beer. Currently in fund-raising mode with a Kickstarter like campaign that will run for 90 days. You can learn more and make a contribution at indiegogo.com/NCBREW2U.

Off the top of my head Bruisin’ Ales in Asheville and Bottle Revolution in Raleigh both offer out of state shipping to the few states that allow it and it seems like NCBREW@U will do the same without the benefit of a stand alone beer store.

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com

#TastyTweetUp

Updated 12/08/11 with draft list!

Craft Beer Collective presents a Tasty #ncbeer Tweet Up on Wednesday December, 14th at 8pm. This is a social beer meet & greet at Tasty Beverage Company in Raleigh featuring a secret Santa stash of draft & bottled beers.

You’ve seen the usernames on Twitter. Now come meet the faces behind them! Hold the date and tell a friend!

RSVP by tweeting you “I’ll be at #tastytweetup” and we’ll do our best to have a name tag waiting for you.

Featured North Carolina beers
Foothills bourbon aged Peoples Porter
Big Boss bourbon aged Bad Penny
Olde Hickory Southern Cross Pilsner

Google Page for Tasty

Untappd Page for Tasty Beverage

View Larger Map

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com

AUGUST NC BEER NEWS

Here are some of the better stories to make their way around the North Carolina beer world.

Asheville Scene in WSJ
Asheville, a Blue Ridge Mountain town of 75,000, has 10 breweries, with two on the way. That can’t compare with the 40 in Portland, Ore., but it stacks up to other beer havens like Milwaukee and Boulder, Colo., which both have fewer than a dozen. “Asheville is definitely on the map and well recognized in the craft-brewing industry,” says Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association in Boulder.

Full story on: online.wsj.com

Nantahala Brewing Company
Nantahala brewer Chris Collier explains his story and why North Carolina is a great place for beer in the south:

“Basically, the reason I went to North Carolina is threefold: You can self-distribute, we can have a taproom and sell off-premise, and as you grow your business, you can write your contract anyway you want,” Collier said.

Collier estimates North Carolina has more breweries and brewpubs than the rest of its Southern neighbors combined.

“That is not coincidence,” he said.

Brewers pay expensive excise taxes — about $25 per keg — on their beer, but it is a price that allows them to operate their businesses with relative freedom

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE

CONGRATS TO Jason McCammon
The Hendersonville, N.C., resident, who will turn 30 in a couple of weeks, now has something else to celebrate besides the milestone birthday.

His award-winning home-brew — a German-style dark lager called Monkey’s Uncle Munich Dunkel — has been released commercially by Olde Hickory Brewery and is available at a few Asheville-area bars and restaurants.

In late April, McCammon’s beer won a Best of Show gold medal at the Olde Hickory Pro-Am home-brew competition, beating out 130 other entries from the Southeast.

COMPLETE STORY

FOOTHILLS EXPANSION
Video from WXII shows Foothills staffers at brewpub and new production facility in Winston Salem.

http://www.wxii12.com/r-video/28781866/detail.html

Brewmaster Jamie Bartholomaus said the brewery has purchased a building off Stratford Road to start bottling its beer. The expansion allows production to move from a 7,000-square-foot space to a 48,000 square-foot-space. The current facility can produce two 22 ounce bottles each minute. The new facility, which will be operational within the next six weeks, will boost production to about 100 bottles per minutes, owners said.

MOTHER EARTH TOUR
Micro Beer Reviews posted this video of the Mother Earth Brewery:

BELT LINE BREW TOURS
Crossdrinker.com posted this video of Beltline Brew tour outside the beltline tour of Durham, featuring Bull City Burger, Fullsteam & Triangle brewing.

TASTY BEVERAGE OPENS
Sean Pratt of Cary, graduated from Cary High School in 2002 and then went to NCSU, graduating in 2007. While studying in Sweden he fell in love with craft and specialty beers. He partnered up with Johnny Belflower (Rocky Mount Senior High School and Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida).

After years of planning they have opened a new shop called Tasty Beverage Company at 327 W. Davie St. Suite 106, in Raleigh in the historic Warehouse District of Downtown Raleigh.
carycitizen.com

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com

Raleigh’s 2 Beer Stores

Raleigh has been well supplied with craft beer through the many bars and restaurants in the area. What was lacking in our beer friendly local scene, is a truly world class retail store specializing in American craft beers and imports. I’ll admit, it’s been a wild fantasy of mine to open such a store. However, two stores are set to open this summer with just such a plan. Cigarettes? Doritos? Four Loko? Out of date beer? High Prices? I hope not.

here are the details:

Tasty Beverage Company
OPENING: in July
ADDRESS: 327 W. Davie St. Suite 106 / Raleigh, NC 27601
WEB: http://www.tastybeverageco.com/
TWEET: @tastybeverageco

Bottle Revolution
OPENING: in August
ADDRESS: 4025 Lake Boone Trail / Raleigh, NC 27603 / 919-885-HOPS
WEB: http://www.bottlerevolution.com/
TWEET: @btlrev

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com

Beer @ Whole Foods North Raleigh

On this quick visit to the new Whole Foods in North Raleigh I spent some time talking to Nathan the beer department manager. He told me of the company’s interest in putting a growler fill station in the store, (a practice that is common to our neighbors to the North and South) but ambiguous growler laws in North Carolina made the decision hard to confirm it’s legality. Instead this store has a series of homebrew starter kits and other supplies.

Some of the notable items in the store were the Sam Adams Imperial series, a fairly large bomber selection, the full Avery and Anderson Valley line of beers in cans on top of a mostly complete line of North Carolina bottled beers and growlers.

North Raleigh kinda has a beer store!

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com

Beer Dispensary now Open in Apex

Tim Overcash at the newly opened Beer Dispensary (103-A E Chatham St Apex, NC 27502) wants you to know about the grand opening celebration this weekend and he sent the Craft Beer Collective this announcement:

The Beer Dispensary, a unique, craft beer store with a “tavern-esque” atmosphere featuring beer from NC, the US and around the world, located in the historic district of downtown Apex, will be celebrating it’s Grand Opening on Friday, Feb 11 and Saturday, Feb 12! Throughout each day, there will be brewery reps from the likes of Stone, Allagash, Duck-Rabbit, Terrapin and more pouring samples of their tasty brews. The store now offers around 350 different beers and the selection continues to grow each week. The Beer Dispensary offers tasting events at it’s custom-made tasting bar on a periodic basis for special releases, different styles and breweries, revisiting old stand-bys and any other excuse. So stop on by The Beer Dispensary’s Grand Opening Weekend Celebration. More information and general times for the sampling of brews will be posted on the website at www.thebeerdispensary.com See you there!

www.thebeerdispensary.com
twitter: BeerDispensary

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com

Lucky City Wine and Ale Shop

Check out this video commercial for a little beer and wine store in Reidsville, NC!

“no dark lighting, no loud music,no smoke, no drug deals, no hookers, just good beer, wine & friendly folk”

http://www.luckycity7.com/

© 2011 Craft Beer Collective / Away Team Media

Bringing you the craft and culture of beer in North Carolina --> Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, NC and beyond

Contact us at dave (at) away (dash) team (dot) com