Bottled beers in NC

Beer Travel
1

We’ve been through this before, but times change.  I’m looking for a list of bottled North Carolina (and maybe a bit surrounding there) beers to try.  I’ll be heading there in a few months, and my brother has asked me for a list of beers for him to secure before I get there.  He’s in the Raleigh area, but sometimes travels around the state and can pick up beers from other areas.

I know there are a lot of good breweries out Asheville way, but I don’t know how many of them package.  It’s got to be something he can get ahead of time and hold on to.  Specialties, one offs, and newer places are great, there’s a good chance I’ve tried many of the ones that have been around for a while.

2

I believe you can get Highland almost anywhere in NC.

3

There’s a Flying Saucer http://www.beerknurd.com/stores/raleigh/ pub in Raleigh with a very extensive beer list http://www.beerknurd.com/stores/raleigh/beer. Your brother should be able to do lots reconnoitering from a bar stool.

4

In Spartanburg, SC about 50 miles south of Asheville but should be able to get their product there.

The Son of a Peach is quite unique.

5

…except in the dry counties

6

Hey Danny, name all those dry counties that exist today…actually, I’ll do it for you, one, Graham, and it is way up in the mountains. 99 other counties which aren’t dry, of course not all have craft beer at the ready, but the availability gets better every single day.

Tom, your problem is going to be many breweries do not bottle at all. They may have growlers, but your shelf life is not extended. Most of the one offs come with long lines and big release parties. Like Foothills Sexual Chocolate, try finding a bottle of that outside of the release party, heck, it’s pretty rare to find it on draft two weeks after release.

With that in mind, send your brother to Sam’s Quick Shop in Durham. It looks like a gas station from the outside so don’t be put off.
http://samsquikshop.com/

If your brother goes to Ashvegas the beer store to hit is Bruisin Ales. To add insult to injury they have zero parking spaces (yep, not even one) so finding a place to park is challenging. Most of their wares are Belgian, but they do tend to carry the one-offs which are bottled from the Asheville area breweries.
http://www.bruisin-ales.com/
The list of breweries in the Asheville proximity is very good, but getting their wares might require a trip to each brewery. Pisgah, Green Man, Wedge, Highland, French Broad, Lexington Avenue, Asheville Brewing, Oyster House, and Appalachian. Not too far away are Nantahala, Heinzelmannchen, Catawba and Olde Hickory. Then a little further down the hill in Winston-Salem is Foothills (growlers only - for now).

Looking at the Triangle area -
Now what to look for - when exactly in a few months? The Anniversary beer from Carolina will be out the first week in July. The site says it will be an Imperial IPA and the special releases are pretty good. It will only be available at the brewery and will probably sell out in two to three weeks. http://www.carolinabrew.com/

Big Boss doesn’t currently bottle any of the one-offs, but he could grab a fresh growler at their tap room, Horniblows Tavern

http://bigbossbrewing.com/tap-room.aspx

LoneRider bottles are out and about. Might be able to get a growler at the brewery

Triangle is canning and he could grab a fresh growler at the brewery

Fullsteam has growlers at the brewery (no bottles)

The more pedestrian Natty Greenes offerings are available out and about bottled, but you’d need to go to the brewpub for something more interesting and again it would be a growler
http://www.nattygreenes.com/content/natty-greenes-pub-brewing-co-raleigh

I’m pretty sure Roth has growlers, but I have not actually had anything from them yet
http://www.rothbrewing.com/home.shtml

Aviator has growlers at their tap room

Mother Earth is down east in Kinston, but you should find bottles at Sam’s
http://www.motherearthbrewing.com/

Duck-Rabbit should be able to find at Sam’s, all their seasonals are bottled with the exception of the very rare Paul’s Day Off which has already come and gone.

Mash House can be had in growler at some of the restaurants like Twisted Fork

In Greensboro Red Oak. Their standard beer is kinda boring as is Hummingbird, their Battlefield Bock is great, but I don’t believe it is bottled and I’m not sure if they do growlers.

Any questions, lemme know.

7

Hey MDixon, I was not trying to dish on NC.  In fact, NC has a better beer scene than where I’m at.  The last time I was there (2 years ago) I went camping with my brother and our families and we ran out of beer the first night :(  Anyway, it was in the mountains and was a dry county (must have been Graham) and it was a 45 min trip (one way) to the nearest beer store, so we decided to stay put and enjoy soft drinks the rest of the trip.  I was impressed with Asheville’s microbreweries 10 years ago when my brother lived there.  I really liked the Brew and View place with the giant gorilla on top of the building and I wonder if it is still around.

8

This is all great info, thanks so much guys.  It sounds like he can get a lot of stuff just by going to Sam’s, so I suggested that.  I mentioned all of the other stuff too, but we’ll see what he comes up with.  It’s not until September, so there’s time to find some things and hold on to it.  I told him not to worry about growlers since it is so far off.

I also went through the Flying Saucer beer list and let him know what beers they had that I can’t get here, so there may be some non-NC beers in the mix.

9

We get everything on Bruisin’s site and Sam’s would have most of it:
http://www.bruisin-ales.com/beers.php

10

That’s awesome, thanks Mike.  I found a place less than 15 miles from the house we’ll be staying in that has over 400 beers, so that will be good when we run out :slight_smile:

http://www.swingbridgebeerandwine.com/beer.html