When I first arrived in Durham over 20 years ago, it was pretty sleepy. Downtown, beautiful old buildings were boarded up, and after the offices closed each day, the place was a ghost town. There was some good food to be found, but craft beer was almost unknown in North Carolina: I could count our
I went to a limited release party, my first, at Foothills Brewery, down the street in Winston Salem for the release of Sexual Chocolate in bottles. What an event! Actually four events linked together. Prior to the release of Sexual Chocolate, Foothills Brewery hosted what could only be called a beer swap, which became a
We've got a great World Beer Festival coming up in January here in Columbia, South Carolina, and we're working again with the Palmetto State Homebrew Club. So, I was happy to drive down in order to spend last Saturday judging entries for the annual Palmetto Open homebrew competition. Homebrewers personify the leading edge of the
The Columbia version of the World Beer Festival was wonderful. With two other very mature, very savvy events, I’d forgotten how much fun a beer festival in a new, fresh town could be. The average age was higher. People talked beer with the brewers, with each other. They took notes in the program book. (Shazaam!)
From industrial spaces to decades old warehouses and downtown storefronts, there are a variety of places to find freshly-made beer in Raleigh. In 2016, one of the newest breweries to start sharing its product won’t be found in a commercial space, but on the campus of North Carolina State University, where its head brewer doubles