The Great American Ale Trail (Revised Edition)
Page 42
PHILOSOPHY
Storytelling in beer form. “Several years ago, we fell in love with craft beer realizing that the beers tell a story beyond the style,” Jess wrote me. “It is the people behind the beer, the history, the passion and hard work, the dedication to something craft, something local that we truly connected to. We see our brewery as a place that brings the community together over innovative, quality beer.”
KEY BEER
Pollination Honey Saison. “This beer truly represents our mission—we are inspired by and place great emphasis on saisons and farmhouse ales, the beer for the farmer,” Jess reports. Made with local malt and honey, it’s aged on a medley of dried flowers including chamomile, lavender, elderflowers, rose petals, rose hips, passion flower, and hibiscus.
BARLEY’S TAPROOM & PIZZERIA
42 Biltmore • Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 255-0504 • barleystaproom.com • Established: 1994
SCENE & STORY
Every beer bar should have the luxury of this much room. In a renovated, 8,000-square-foot 1920s former appliance store in the heart of Asheville’s arts and entertainment district, Barley’s is more than a beer bar. It’s also a restaurant and music venue, with New York–style sourdough pizza made from the spent grains of local breweries (and other pub fare) to go with all the live Americana music on offer several nights a week. Better yet, there’s no cover. The mostly local, twenty-four-tap ground floor section is a deep space of weathered wooden floors and tables, handsome wooden bar with high “captain’s chairs,” and tinned and carved timber ceilings. For a game of pool, head upstairs to a room of regulation slate billiard tables available by the hour, plus darts and nineteen additional taps.
PHILOSOPHY
This is a shrine for the southern craft beer awakening: Of the approximately 100 total beers available on draught or in bottles, just under half are from the South, while the rest are mostly from American brewers.
KEY BEER
Pisgah’s hazy orange organic Pale Ale (5.5% ABV) is the perfect pizza beer: crisp, a touch sweet, and finishing with enough bitter bite to stand up to the zip of the sauce and meats.
THE THIRSTY MONK
92 Patton Ave. • Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 254-5470 • monkpub.com • Established: 2008
Reynolds Village • 51 N. Merrimon Ave., No. 113 • Woodfin, NC 28804 • (828) 424-7807 • monkpub.com • Established: 2014
Biltmore Park • 2 Town Square Blvd., No. 170 • Asheville, NC 28803 • (828) 687-3873
monkpub.com • Established: 2013
SCENE & STORY
The first thing you’ll notice about the Monk on Patton Avenue is that the outside of the bar is painted a funny color: purple. Then you enter the place by the means of a long ramp, which seems a bit odd, and drop into a long narrow space with cream walls and high ceilings. And there you are: one of the more recent additions to the Asheville scene, the Thirsty Monk happens to be one of the best in the country, with forty-four taps and over 220 bottles of American and Belgian craft specialties. The deep and thoughtful beer list is complemented by innovative beer-friendly foods sourced from local purveyors including farm lamb, bakery breads, cheese, mustard, and trout, which provides for smoked trout sandwiches. It’s a happy and bright place with a steady stream of special events, brewer appearances, and other beer-centric gatherings. They now have three locations in Asheville, as well as a cocktail bar, Top of the Monk, and the Belgian-style house beers are getting ever more play.
PHILOSOPHY
Belgian-style beers and hospitality with southern soul.
KEY BEER
If the Monk’s house beer is available, order it. Otherwise start with a palate cleansing SweetWater Road Trip, a 5.3% ABV German-style pilsner, then widen your explorations.
WEDGE BREWING CO.
125-B Roberts St. • Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 505-2792 • wedgebrewing.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
It takes extra effort to find the Wedge taproom, located in the lower level of a dilapidated old warehouse in Asheville’s French Broad River Arts district (just keep the number handy and call, should you get lost). Once used for meatpacking and food storage, the brewery, taproom, and arty patio area overlook a rail yard, and the beer produced there is, like Pisgah’s outside of town, fast becoming sought after by beer-savvy locals. And it’s right next to New Belgium’s new brewery, making this a bona fide brewery district.
PHILOSOPHY
Beer, the best form of art. There are multiple sculptures and artworks on the grounds and inside the pub area, adding to the overall progressive, community-based good vibes here. The latest draw: movies and live bands al fresco.
KEY BEER
Work your way up to the Golem, a 9% ABV strong Belgian Pale Ale with a hazy gold color and rich notes of apricot, wheat, and a lingering spiciness reminiscent of cinnamon and white pepper.
PISGAH BREWING CO.
150 Eastside Dr. • Black Mountain, NC 28711 (828) 669-0190 • pisgahbrewing.com • Established: 2004
SCENE & STORY
Part of the proud American tradition of great brewpubs in downright weird places, Pisgah resides in a nondescript industrial park about twenty minutes outside Asheville with absolutely no pomp and circumstance—the sign is smaller than a spider’s eye, with approximately one-inch lettering. All of the energy goes into the organically brewed beers, produced on a small system. There’s also an outdoor fire pit, pool table, some picnic benches, and an outdoor stage for blues, rock, and reggae acts as talented as the legendary Steel Pulse. Who needs a spendy taproom in the middle of town?
PHILOSOPHY
Green is the color. Pisgah was the first certified organic brewery in the Southeast.
KEY BEER
Look for the Vortex II Russian Imperial Stout, a devilishly smooth and drinkable 11.7% ABV of roasted black malt flavors.
BRUISIN’ ALES
66 Broadway St. • Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 252-8999 • bruisin-ales.com • Established: 2006
SCENE & STORY
The presence of a truly great comprehensive bottle shop can propel a small city to find its craft beer feet and take off running for the good stuff. By making available a wide range of international and domestic craft beers to locals, the store stokes a thirst for homegrown breweries and good beer bars. Bruisin’ Ales fills that essential role in Asheville, with over a thousand beers handsomely presented in a bright, clean space (with two taps as well).
PHILOSOPHY
“Teach a man to fish . . .” It’s a real hub of Asheville’s craft beer scene, offering events and classes, brewer appearances, meet-ups of the Asheville Brewers Alliance, which is working to promote beer tourism and area festivals.
KEY BEER
The deliciously named (and made) Conduplico Immundus Monachus, from South Carolina’s Thomas Creek Brewery (10% ABV). It’s a mouthful of dark brown sugar, cocoa, and caramel tastes with a fruity edge.
Raleigh
THE RALEIGH TIMES BAR
14 E. Hargett St. • Raleigh, NC 27601 (919) 833-0999 • raleightimesbar.com • Established: 2006
SCENE & STORY
The hip, nonsmoking bar known as the Raleigh Times goes back to 2006 but the building’s history is 100 years older, having housed the august Raleigh Times—the newspaper—up until its last edition ran in 1989. Part of a small complex of interconnected businesses with a breakfast counter (Morning Times), eatery (Dining Times), and hipper bar (RTBX), the atmospheric Times Bar has high tinned ceilings, old, exposed brick walls, and hardwood floors next to a wide, burnished wood bar. It’s timeless; one half expects Atticus Finch to walk in here clutching a story to take up with the editors in righteous fury. In 2012 they added some good improvements including a takeout window and patio on the roof.
PHILOSOPHY
All the beer that’s fit to drink. While there are only eight draft beers at a time (mostly from area producers), the bottle list has more than 100 selections, half of which are American craft relea
ses (especially from North Carolina and the surrounding states), and the other half of which are Belgians.
KEY BEER
The list includes funky sours and other oddities like Drie Fonteinen Kriek, a Belgian sour beer made with cherries and spontaneously fermented Belgian lambics and one of the most acclaimed examples of the style.
Charlotte
GROWLERS POURHOUSE
3120 N. Davidson St. • Charlotte, NC 28205 (704) 910-6566 • growlerspourhouse.com • Established: 2011
SCENE & STORY
The pace of the southern craft beer revolution quickened in 2011 with the arrival of Growlers in Raleigh’s arty NoDa area (North of Downtown). With impressive antique Chinese doors, heavy wood tables, hardwood floors and chic track lighting, it strikes a classy pose. But the beer and “beer food” are more than window dressing. Choose from fourteen taps and one rotating cask served from a nineteenth-century hand-pump engine, housemade hot dogs, sausages, and an oyster bar with rotating varieties; treats like peel-and-eat shrimp and tableside marshmallow roasting make this place even more fun. And the “beer-ed” classes on the first Tuesday of each month are a nice touch.
PHILOSOPHY
Housemade or bust. Even the potato chips are fried in the kitchen.
KEY BEER
Foothills Brewing Co. from Winston-Salem should be on tap; look for their Sexual Chocolate (9.75%), a burly (but rare) Russian Imperial Stout.
Durham
FULLSTEAM
726 Rigsbee Ave. • Durham, NC 27701 (919) 682-BEER or (888) 756-9274 • fullsteam.ag • Established: 2010
SCENE & STORY
Just north of downtown Durham near the corner of Geer and Rigsbee, start looking for a huge backward F, the symbol of this upstart brewery in a spacious, beige brick warehouse with a pub inside. Consider it your duty: North Carolina beer travelers owe a lot to the founders of Fullsteam. For one, Sean Lilly Wilson is the man whose “Pop the Cap” campaign successfully raised the state’s allowable beer alcohol limit to 15 percent in 2005. In 2010 he joined with former Abita head brewer Brooks Hamaker and über–home brewer Chris Davis to launch one of the South’s most ambitious breweries. The trio’s R&D Tavern (on-site, enclosed in a boxy red room inside the brewery) is a family-friendly tavern/indoor beer garden featuring Fullsteam beer, guest taps of North Carolina beers, music and events, and dining options via food trucks.
PHILOSOPHY
Originally launched under the banner of “plow-to-pint beer from the beautiful South,” Fullsteam is brewing beers that seem unusual not only in said sunny region—they’re newfangled for the whole Craft Beer Nation. There are three categories: Workers’ Compensation, a group of session beers led by Fullsteam Southern Lager (5.5% ABV); Apothecary, for “radical, farm-focused” beers including Hogwash, a hickory-smoked porter, and Summer Basil; and the Forager series, which utilizes fruit and other fermentables that members of the community are invited to sell to the brewery at a fair market price in exchange for some of the finished beer (and bragging rights, of course). Local persimmons and pears have already made it into the rotation. Other brews either already out or in development make use of parsnip, kudzu, rhubarb, and sweet potato—even grits. One has to wonder, what next? How about nighttime guided canoe trips that are also beer tastings led by Wilson, a James Beard semifinalist in 2012 and 2013? That’s just the start of it for these innovative brewers.
KEY BEER
Summer Basil, the first beer brewed on Fullsteam’s commercial system, is a 5.5% ABV summer seasonal with fresh local basil added. The idea was born when Wilson plunged a grip of fresh basil leaves into a can of Budweiser while at a house party. The resulting beer is a hazy, peachy gold ale with a bready body and green herb overtones.
BEST of the REST: NORTH CAROLINA
FONTA FLORA BREWERY
317 N. Green St. • Morganton, NC 28655 • (828) 475-0153 • fontaflora.com
In search of “a totally unique North Carolina/Appalachian–style of beer,” the brewer Todd Steven Boera is one of the pathbreakers shaking up the beer scene in the American South and beyond. By working with the local Riverbend Malt House and foraging for many of his ingredients in the wild, Fonta Flora is part of a wave of American brewers that are taking beer back to premodern flavors and techniques, but thankfully with contemporary “QA-QC”—quality assurance, quality control. Like Scratch Brewing in Illinois, Jester King outside of Austin, Texas, and Arizona Wilderness in suburban Phoenix, it’s a brewery where many ingredients hail from truly wild places. A saison, Beets, Rhymes, & Life took a gold at GABF 2015 in the field beer category. That’s just the start of it.
JACK OF THE WOOD PUBLIC HOUSE
95 Patton Ave. • Asheville, NC 28801 • (828) 252-5445, ext. 105 • jackofthewood.com
Asheville-go-bragh. A hippified Celtic beer bar in downtown Asheville, Jack of the Wood was the original location of Green Man Brewing and still serves five of its beers, with a small selection brews from beyond town (even Brooklyn!). There are popular jam sessions on Wednesdays (from 6 p.m.), Thursdays (bluegrass, after 9 p.m.) and Sundays (Irish, starting at 5 p.m.), and frequent weekend bands for little or no cover charge.
THE BIER GARDEN
46 Haywood St. • Asheville, NC 28801 • (828) 285-0002 • ashevillebiergarden.com
A family-friendly, casual, and sports-oriented bar established in 1994, the Bier Garden features about 10 North Carolina beers among its 30 taps and some 200 bottles, one of the best selections in all of Asheville. It’s not an actual biergarten, though, being housed partly in an atrium-like space in an office building. Still, it’s a good place to try a selection of beers, upscale pub grub, and take in a game.
NODA BREWING
2921 N. Tryon St. • Charlotte, NC 28206 • (704) 900-6851 • nodabrewing.com
Opened in 2011, NoDa Brewing in Charlotte won the best IPA in the World Beer Cup in 2014 with Hop, Drop, & Roll, an American-style IPA with Citra and Amarillo hops. This, of course, was some fiercely coveted status—there are hundreds of competitors—and it coincided with their $8 million expansion into a new 32,000-square-foot warehouse at 2921 N. Tryon Street (they’re keeping the original as well). The new facility has a sixty-barrel brewhouse, a bigger taproom, and an outdoor patio space. The modus operandi is expirimental. Led by former home brewers, the beer list is ever-changing.
THE DUCK-RABBIT CRAFT BREWERY
4519 W. Pine St. • Farmville, NC 27828 • (252) 753-7745 • duckrabbitbrewery.com
Since 2004 “the dark beer specialists” at Duck-Rabbit have grown their business into a small regional brewery, producing around 3,700 barrels annually and steadily rising. Based in the sleepy town of Farmville (which lives up to its name), it’s really only a small, packaging-only operation built in a light industrial garage, but there’s a small, new taproom for guests to sample brewer Paul Philippon’s much lauded creations, like his 9% ABV Baltic Porter and a variety of other stouts and dark beers (he prefers the darker end of the spectrum). Trouble is, it’s really far from major cities and the taproom is only open Fridays. But maybe you’re up for it? Philippon is a former philosophy teacher, and wanted to honor his past by illustrating labels with a classic Gestalt shift diagram, which appears as either a duck or a rabbit, or something else entirely depending on how many beers you’ve had. So: is it a duck or a rabbit?
MOTHER EARTH BREWING
311 N. Herritage St. • Kinston, NC 28501 • (252) 208-2437 • motherearthbrewing.com
This is small-town North Carolina at its best. A progressive, family-run brewery in the old tobacco belt named for a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band record and opened in 2008, Mother Earth has transformed the sleepy, little town of Kinston (thirty miles south of Greenville; population 25,000) into a real destination. The brewery is deeply committed to LEED-level conservation ethics and the formulation focus is on Belgian and German styles like witbier and kölsch. Recently the owners also opened a boutique hotel within walking distance, the O’Neil, in an old bank buildi
ng complete with bar in the gorgeous old vault (the-oneil.com).
SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO.
100 Sierra Nevada Way • Mills River, NC 28732 • (828) 681-5300 • sierranevada.com
Beer fans raised glasses in respect when Sierra Nevada announced a second production facility and taproom in another town outside of Chico, California, that would cost a cool $100 million. But when it was set for Mills River, nineteen miles outside one of the best beer towns in America—with bigtime players New Belgium coming into Asheville and Oskar Blues just outside town—the whole thing turned beerily surreal. Of course, you should visit them all. At Sierra Nevada, reserve in advance online and choose from a self-guided tour on catwalks above the brewhouse (no reservations required), the free standard tour inside (90 minutes), the Natural Resources tour (checking out all the innovative water and solar projects around the property), the IPA tour (90 minutes; $25), or the Beer Geek Tour (three hours; $30), leading six lucky sots through the hop cooler, 200 barrel production brewhouse, and the 20-barrel pilot brewery all afternoon. Wrap it all up with beers in the 23-tap bar and beer garden overlooking a stone terrace and brewery plantings.
HAW RIVER FARMHOUSE ALES
1713 Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Rd. • Saxapahaw, NC 27340 • (336) 525-9270 • hawriverales.com
Among the homespun projects these Belgium-inspired brewers have going on is distributing organic seeds to local fans so they’ll raise and donate fruit and vegetables to be used in future beers. While they’re on a farm and the modern-looking taproom they call home is on the small side, their goals and dreams are big. Make a detour if you’re nearby and try St. Benedict’s Breakfast Dubbel.