Craft Beer Collective

A New Craft Brewery to Open in the Triangle

PRESS RELEASE: A New Craft Brewery to Open in the Triangle

Durham, North Carolina – January 17th, 2012 – Though software engineering may not be the first thing that comes to mind when discussing craft beer, such is not the case for two new brewers in the craft beer scene. Andrew Simmering and David Britt, RTP software engineers, are working towards opening a new brewery in the Triangle area; Shade Tree Brewing Company. Whether it be their operational size, their projects, or their method of funding, these guys are anything but conventional.

They are opening on a scale that would make a micro brewery feel like a multinational conglomerate. They are calling themselves a nano brewery and planning on producing only enough output to support their local community. This is not because of restrictions or inability, but rather they believe that a smaller output will allow them to make a commitment to quality and creativity. It’s also not all about profit as they are already working on plans for unique, no-profit projects. One such project is a series of charity beers brewed in conjunction with local homebrew clubs. Another, which throws back to their programming roots, is a community-designed open source beer.

Unfortunately, such a business model does not tend to attract the attention of venture capitalists, and thus their approach to funding does not follow conventional methods. While all of their backing thus far has come from their own wallets, they are now looking to their community to help them along. This is taking form as a project on the creative backing website kickstarter.com. Their project, available at
http://www.kickstarter.com, provides some basic information about the brewery, and offers a series of rewards for different levels of contributions.

Shade Tree Brewing Company was founded in April of 2010, and plans on launching before 2013, and will do so with two staple beers: A Kölsch-style hybrid ale, and an Imperial IPA. The Kölsch is a lighter, crisper beer intended to satisfy the lovers of the Kölsch style while also attracting people new to the craft beer movement. Their Imperial IPA is a heavier, more robust ale designed specifically for those who have already developed a taste for heavy, hoppy, high gravity beers. As they move forward, they plan to have a rotating selection of seasonal beers, as well as experimental or uncommon styles.

http://www.shadetreebrew.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

Great Lakes soon to be available in Triangle area

Ohio’s most celebrated craft brewer of award-winning lagers & ales, announces its plan to enter the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (North Carolina) market with Long Beverage Inc. on February 20, 2012. GLBC previously launched products in Charlotte and Greensboro in March 2010; “The Triangle” is the next natural step in the company’s strategic growth plans. Customers can expect to see GLBC’s year-round family of beers in package and draft, as well as the new “Taster’s Pack” (a sampler 12-pack).

The new market rollout will involve multiple customer appreciation events, meet-and-greets, tastings and giveaways throughout the area. “We’ve been courted by distributors all over North Carolina for a number of years now, and there’s a large population of Ohioans clamoring for our product down there,” explains Patrick Conway, GLBC Co-Owner. “We are committed to our methodical growth and look to penetrate deeper in the states we currently serve. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill presents an excellent opportunity, and we look forward to providing our customers with the products they love.”

GLBC currently serves 12 states and Washington DC. Founded in 1988 by brothers Patrick and Daniel Conway as the first craft brewery in the state of Ohio, GLBC is nationally known for its exceptional family of beers including Dortmunder Gold Lager, Eliot Ness Amber Lager, Burning River Pale Ale, Commodore Perry India Pale Ale and Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.

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GLBC Triangle Page

© 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

Narragansett now with Mims

PRESS RELEASE: Triangle area distributor brings in Narragansett Brewing Company line of beers:

Chip Mims, CEO of Mims Distributing Company, a beer distributor that services a nine-county area in and around the Triangle, has announced that Mims is now distributing beer from the Narragansett Brewing Company. Narragansett’s family of classic American lagers, light beers and ales are brewed in Rochester, N.Y., at a brewery that has been producing award-winning beers for more than 125 years. The bock and porter are craft-brewed in Providence, R.I., and Pawcatuck, Conn.

Quotes:
“Mims Distributing Company is excited to add Narragansett Brewing Company to our list of breweries,” said Mims. “The Narragansett brewmasters use the finest and purest ingredients to ensure that what ends up in your glass is Narragansett at its very best—flavorful, drinkable and refreshing.”

Details: – For more information on Narragansett, visit http://www.narragansettbeer.com.

For a list of the other breweries with whom Mims Distributing Company works, visit http://www.mimsdist.com/breweries.html.

© 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

Food Bank benefit @ Rock Fish

Food Bank Benefit Presented by Rock Fish Grill & North Carolina Brewers Guild
Tuesday December Sixth 6:30-9:00 pm

Join the North Carolina Brewers Guild (@NCBeer) at Rockfish Seafood Grill (@RockfishNC) on December 6th from 6:30-9:00 pm for the 1st Annual North Carolina Brewers Guild Holiday Tweetup!

This will be a great opportunity to get together, support North Carolina Beer, spread some holiday cheer, and meet some of your favorite NC beer Tweeters/Bloggers/Brewers/and fans!

This event will feature, amongst other items:
• A “Sweet Potato Pie” cask from Fullsteam Brewery (@fullsteam) •A “Death by Hops” cask dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin from Olde Hickory (@oldehickory) •Several other North Carolina Breweries featured on draft •A fantastic appetizer buffet.
•A “White Elephant” inspired unwanted beer themed gift exchange. Wrap up your unwanted beers, your pint glasses, your bottle openers, etc!

Because both the North Carolina Brewers Guild and Rockfish Seafood Grill believe that the local Craft Beer community is one of the most generous and community focused groups out there, we are encouraging each guest to bring a canned food item. These items will be donated to The Durham Branch of the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.

“Tickets” are $10 per person. This will cover admission, appetizer buffet, gift exchange, and some other surprises. All featured North Carolina beers will be available through a cash bar (credit cards are also welcome).

Follow both @NCBeer and @RockfishNC for updates on this event and use the hash tag #NCBeerHolidayTweetup in all of your tweets leading up to the event!

Tickets must be purchased in advance either in person or over the phone from Rockfish Seafood Grill. Phone 919-544-9220

#ncbeerholidaytweet

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© 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

Stone’s Greg Koch in Durham

Here is a clip of Stone Brewing Company’s Greg Koch finishing his speech on top of the bar at Tyler’s Tap Room in Durham, North Carolina. This took place on October 27th, 2011 while the craft beer pioneer was on his 15th anniversary book tour.

© 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

Casks For A Cure

Tonight at 6pm Rockfish Seafood Grill in Durham (Suite 905, 8030 Renaissance Parkway / Durham, NC 27713-8261 / (919) 544-9220) three new breweries offer casks conditioned ales:

Mystery Brewing Company offers a blond ale steeped with hibiscus flowers.
Haw River Farmhouse Ales brings a winter harvest dark saison with pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, honey, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon & allspice
Steel String Brewery has a black wheat ale made with cocoa nibs

$10 donation benefits Susan G. Komen Foundation gets you a pour of each beer and t shirt

Are you attending this event?? Use #casksforacure in your tweets!

© 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

WBF Durham preview

Here is a preview of beers to look out for at World Beer Fest Durham this weekend October 8th. We love our North Carolina Beers (it looks like Mystery Brewing will make it’s festival debut here) but I couldn’t help notice the array of out of market beers that will be available at this year’s World Beer Festival in Durham. Here are a few:

21st Amendment Brewery: Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, Brew Free! or Die IPA, Back In Black
Boulevard Brewing Co.: The Sixth Glass, Double Wide IPA, Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
Crescent City Brewhouse: Pilsner
Deschutes Brewery: Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Inversion IPA
Great Lakes Brewing Co.: Burning River Pale Ale, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Oktoberfest
Kuhnhenn Brewing Co.: Loonie Kuhnie, Simcoe Silly, DRIPA, Imperial Creme Brulee Java Stout
New Glarus Brewing Co.: Moon Man, Fat Squirrel, Wisconsin Belgian Red
Summit Brewing Company: Extra Pale Ale, Summit Horizon Red, Oktoberfest

Plus this video from NBC 17 shows World Beer Festival creator Daniel Bradford and NC brewers Guild director Anna Lockhart tasting some North Carolina Brews with their hosts. Also noted in this interview is the fact that all the NC breweries will be grouped together:

MORE INFO / TICKETS: http://allaboutbeer.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

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

WBF Durham

World Beer Festival in Durham is one of NC longest lasting festivals. Tickets are onsale now:

The festival will be held October 8, 2011 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

For one day, the World Beer Festival in Durham will allow visitors a chance to taste and sample craft and specialty beers in two-ounce pours while supplies last.

The festival offers two four-hour sessions:
The first session will be from noon to 4 p.m. and the second session will be from 6 to 10 p.m. Standard admission to a single session is $40 in advance ($50 day of the event if available), which includes samples from a selection of more than 300 beers from more than 100 breweries, music by local bands, educational sessions by industry experts, and a festival tasting glass.

TICKETS

Durham Bulls Athletic Park -409 BLACKWELL ST DURHAM, NCUNITED STATES

© 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

IPA Day in the Triangle

It’s here, IPA DAY or #ipaday. I have a list of Triangle area IPA events on August 4th. So what’s this celebration of bitter ales all about? Middle of the summer. Not quite hop harvest season yet. I’m not trying to knock the idea of IPA Day but the IPA is such a go to style for so many people that it’s hard to do this concept justice. To the credit of the web, internet, Twitter, Facebook and Spacebook it all came about rather quickly and events started popping up. So good job with that everyone.

Here is a better description of International IPA day at http://2beerguys.com/blog/2011/07/28/international-ipa-day/.

And here is a list of everything that came across my screen regarding #IPADAY in the Triangle.

BUSY BEE will have dry hopped cask of Flying Dog Raging Bitch & Avery Maharaja!

RALEIGH TIMES will have the following beers on when they open at 11 am: Founders Devil Dancer, Houblon Chouffe, Evil Twin Yang DIPA, Terrapin Hopsecutioner, Ballast Point Big Eye, Foothills Seeing Double, Green Flash Imperial IPA, Avery DuganA, Anderson Valley Hop Ottin, and Lagunitas Lucky 13

BIG BOSS will have a cask of High Roller IPA in their tap room starting at 5pm.

DRAFT will have 6 IPAs on special. Hope they offer flights!

ROCK FISH Grill will feature Peak Brewing Hop Noir Black IPA

SWEETWATER will host a pub crawl around Raleigh

AVIATOR BREWING will have fresh hops delivered to the Aviator Tap House and Brewery Bar for your HogWild IPA…put the fresh hops right into your pint glass! http://fb.me/R2L7zpnK They’ll also have a cask of Mad Beach aged on fresh cherries! http://fb.me/1cPPHp1B7

Yup, I stole that last one right from Cross Drinker! I’m getting lazy and not really happy about all this since I will most likely miss all of these fine events!

© 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

Fullsteam Wanderlust

http://www.carolinatravelplanner.com/ has the details for Fullsteam’s Cherry beer that debuted today.

In celebration of National Rainier Cherry Day on July 11, Northwest Cherries has commissioned one iconic restaurant in each state to create a unique menu item featuring the well-known Rainier cherry. Northwest Cherries’ choice for North Carolina was Durham’s Fullsteam Brewery, putting the brewery in the elite company of notable culinary giants such as Chez Panisse in California, Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami and Bacchanalia in Atlanta. And what better way to showcase the cherry for a brewery than with a cherry beer.

© 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 News round up

CONGRATS TO NORTH CAROLINA WINNERS
NC breweries place in US Open Beer Championships
Winners in the 2011 United States Open Beer Championships – the only brewery competition to include professional breweries and award-winning home brewers – were announced this week. More than 1200 beers in more than 50 different categories were submitted.

Fullsteam, Mother Earth, Lexington Ave Brewing, Lonerider all placed with multiple medals. Check out the results here: http://www.usopenbeer.com/

SUMMER BREWS IN THE TECHNICIAN
Mark Herring of NCSU‘s technicianonline.com wrote a feature story. Mike Natale at Roth Brewing, Mark Doble of Aviator, Joe Zonin of Carolina and yours truly, representing Big Boss, are all quoted for the story.
N.C. boasts one of the largest numbers of craft breweries in the U.S., and within a 25-mile radius of N.C. State there are 12 breweries, many of which are taking advantage of the change of seasons to rotate their specialty beers.

BELTLINE BREW TOURS DURHAM
Andrea at the newsobserver.com spoke with Will Holland about his Beltline Brew Tours new regular hours of operation: Beltline Brew Tours is now offering a once-a-month tour of three Durham breweries: Fullsteam, Triangle Brewing Company and Bull City Burger and Brewery. The next tour is 11:30 a.m. July 16. Tickets are $40 to $45.

ASHEVILLE BREWING GETS DISTRO DEAL
Tony Kiss outlines the deal between Asheville Brewing and their local Budweiser distributor as they begin canning their beers for distribution. …the brewery hopes to be canning beers, something that no other Asheville beer maker has yet done.

A lot of this has to do with Asheville Brewing’s recent distribution deal with Budweiser of Asheville. To really grow the business, the brewery needed an organization to get its products out there in stores, bars and restaurants.

As the brewery cranks out more ale and gets that canning line going, Budweiser of Asheville will be placing the product in more spots around Western North Carolina, making it much more convenient to purchase.

© 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