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The online home of North Carolina beer.

Coming up in NC Beer: Highland Homebrew, Duck-Rabbit Brunch, and Charlotte Craft Beer Week.

Mar 2

Posted by ncbeer in Charlotte, The Triangle, Uncategorized | No Comments

The next two weeks on the NC Beer Calendar are just a small precursor to the end of the month.

Highland is hosting the Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing this weekend and the 3rd Annual Highland Cup. Get your homebrew on and keep an eye on Highland.

On Tuesday, March 9 – head down to Rock Bottom in Charlotte for their Irish Red Lager Tapping Party, from 5:30 – 7:30 and get a little early St. Patrick’s Day action.

Next weekend, head over to The Borough in Raleigh to enjoy a Beer Brunch with Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery.

But start revving your engines now, because the end of the month, March 18 – 28, is the inaugural Charlotte Craft Beer Week. Take a look at the event schedule to whet your appetite. Look for more here about Charlotte’s first Beer Week as we get a little closer to the date.

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NC Beer – Week of February 1st, 2010

Jan 29

Posted by Erik Myers in Charlotte, The Triad | No Comments

Coming up this week in NC Beer:

Monday, February 2nd, 5:30 PM: Brewer’s Select Tapping Party: Rock Bottom Charlotte If you’re in the Charlotte area, head over to Rock Bottom and enjoy their latest beer, and help a good cause at the same time. A note from Rock Bottom Brewmaster David Gonzalez: “The beer is an Extra Special Bitter (ESB). The Charity is Classroom Central (they provide school supplies to needy children in the Charlotte area). For every pack of pencils, colored pencils, or Crayola Markers you bring, you get a ticket to our raffle. ie: bring 5 items, get 5 tickets. We will also donate $1.00 of every ESB sold that day to them.”

Friday, February 5th and Saturday, February 6th: Foothills Sexual Chocolate Release Friday night, bring your favorite rare beers from your beer cellar to Foothills and share them with beer geeks from around the country who are gathering for the 2010 release of Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout. Saturday morning, get in line early, because 1000 bottles of Sexual Chocolate are being sold at the opening of the brewpub (11:00 AM).

Coming later in the month: Check the NC Beer Calendar for upcoming events including back-to-back beer dinners in Durham – Big Boss at the Broad Street Cafe and Mother Earth at Dos Perros – as well as a beer dinner at Rock Bottom in Charlotte. More events are added all the time, keep an eye out here!

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Carolina BrewMasters Make a Generous Contribution to the Brewer’s Guild

Dec 3

Posted by Erik Myers in Charlotte, Press Release | No Comments

Carolina BrewmastersThe North Carolina Brewers Guild is pleased to announce that they have received a generous donation from the Carolina BrewMasters, the state’s largest homebrew club, with over 200 members, based in Charlotte, NC. The donation of $1500, which was part of the proceeds of this year’s Charlotte Oktoberfest, was announced at the group’s December 2nd meeting.

The Charlotte Oktoberfest is in its 11th year and over 6,000 people attended the event this year. “The primary goal of the event is to educate the Charlotte community on the very good craft beers we have available both locally and around the state.” said Benfield. It is 100% volunteer driven, beer and other items available at the event are donated by breweries and distributors. Proceeds raised from the event are donated to various charities and organizations. In addition to the North Carolina Brewers Guild, the club made sizable donations to the local chapter of the National Kidney Foundation and Victory Junction. Each organization will receive $30,000 for a total of $60,000. This is the highest donation from the proceeds of Charlotte Oktoberfest in the history of the Carolina BrewMasters.

“It was our pleasure.” said Benfield, “We feel like a monetary donation is a small part of what our real goal actually is. It was nice to be able to do something in addition to what the Guild would get free from us on the daily basis, anyway: our enthusiasm and support.”

Rick Benfield, President of the Carolina BrewMasters and David Gonzalez, Vice President of the North Carolina Brewers Guild, share a beer.

Rick Benfield, President of the Carolina BrewMasters and David Gonzalez, Vice President of the North Carolina Brewers Guild, share a beer.


President of the North Carolina Brewers Guild, Jamie Bartholomaus of Foothills Brewing Company, and Vice President David Gonzalez of Rock Bottom Charlotte have both expressed their gratitude. “Together the NC Brewers Guild and the Carolina Brewmasters have teamed up to promote beer and brewing in North Carolina,” Gonzalez said, “The Carolina Brewmasters have shown their great support of North Carolina beer by hosting the Charlotte Oktoberfest beer festival for years, and their sizable donation to the NC Brewers Guild shows even further dedication.” Added Bartholomaus, “We look forward to working even more closely with the Carolina BrewMasters in the future to do great things for North Carolina beer.”

For more information on the Carolina Brewmasters, see http://www.carolinabrewmasters.com, on Charlotte Oktoberfest, see http://www.charlotteoktoberfest.com, and on the North Carolina Brewers Guild, see http://www.ncbeer.org.

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Old Mecklenburg Brewery

Apr 29

Posted by ncbeer in Charlotte, Interviews | 1 Comment

Similar to Raleigh’s LoneRider Brewing Company (see KYB #2), Charlotte’s Old Mecklenburg Brewery is a production brewery started by an intrepid team of three. John Marrino, Jon Hayward, and Carey Savoy purchased the old Southend Brewery equipment last year, moving it from its uptown Charlotte location to a nearby manufacturing district. They’re already brewing German-inspired beers and, within a few months, they expect to build out an on-site tap room.

KYB is kinda sorta of based in the Triangle right now (hey, anyone else interested in conducting interviews?), so we corresponded via email with OMB’s Jon Hayward. Hope you enjoy!

KYB: It looks like it’s three of you at the brewery. What do each of you do at the brewery?

Jon:I focus most of my time on sales and marketing. John is the Brewer. He also oversees the general direction of the brewery, brewery operations, marketing and finance. Carey is the Assistant Brewer and does a little bit of everything including all maintenance tasks. Both John and Carey are also currently building out our tap room.

KYB: How did you meet?

Jon: John and I grew up together. We met in elementary school in Massachusetts and thirty years later we both ended up in Charlotte. Cary worked with John at his previous employer.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Two new Charlotte breweries in the works?

Jan 20

Posted by ncbeer in Charlotte | No Comments

Word on the street is that a few breweries are set to open in the Queen City, possibly as soon as the summer of ‘09! No details yet, but be sure to check back for all the latest developments…and perhaps an interview or two, if the new owners have time!

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