Here are this week’s new and events happing in and around the Charlotte, NC area!
- Wednesday, July 18th. Sycamore Brewing Tap Takeover. Vintner’s Hill Wine Room and Espresso Café. 6 pm-9 pm. Join us as Sycamore Brewing takes over our taps! A local favorite, Sycamore Brewing believes fresh beer made with top-notch ingredients should be enjoyed by everyone. So, a few years back, with proud roots in Charlotte, they set out to brew beers that bring people together and drink easy from the first sip to the last. After humbly perfecting some of their favorite recipes over the last decade, they’re honored to share them with you. If you like exceptionally fresh, tasty beer, we invite you to gather a few friends and neighbors and enjoy a pint of Sycamore.
- Thursday, July 19th. Generously Hopped V15: Big Brothers Big Sisters. Wooden Robot Brewery. 5 pm-8 pm. Join us for the launch of Generously Hopped V15: Big Brothers Big Sisters! Our rotating IPA series allows us to combine two of our favorite things, experimentation and working to help improve our community! Each month, Wooden Robot will be partnering with a local non-profit organization to raise awareness and funds. Every batch of Generously Hopped IPA will feature a brand new recipe and local non-profit, with $1 of every large pour and crowler fill benefiting our partner organization.
We are pleased to announce that our next partnership will be with our friends at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Carolinas! We are hosting a night with this amazing organization on Thursday 7/19 from 5-8pm to kickstart their batch of Generously Hopped V15.
Grab a pint of beer and support a great cause! - Thursday, July 19th. Amélie’s & Birdsong Collab & Sorbet pairing! Birdsong Brewing. 5 pm-7 pm. Join us on Thursday, July 19th from 5-7p for a special Birdsong and Amélie’s French Bakery & Café beer release and pairing! “La vie en Lavender” is a Lavender Lemon Tart Saison that was brewed as a compliment to Amélie’s Lavender Lemon Macaron Sandwiches! Amélie’s will be on site sampling the sorbet sandwiches from 5-7p and we will be donating $2 for every pint sold of La Vie en Lavender to Time Out Youth! The beer will be available all day and eventually at Amélie’s Uptown location so if you can’t make it from 5-7p, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to taste this delicious brew! Amélie’s is a French bakery and café located in Charlotte NC, Rock Hill SC and Atlanta GA. Their mission is to foster a feast for the senses and unique experience for each and every person that walks through their doors.
* The Lavender Lemon Sorbet Sandwich is sandwich made of 2 classic French macaron cookies w/ lavender lemon sorbet in between. It’s also dairy & gluten free! - Friday, July 20th. Hazy River 2.0 IPA Collaboration can release. Triple C Brewing Co. 4 pm-10pm. Version 2 of 4 of our collaborations with the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation releases on 7.20. $1 from each pint and 4 pack of cans will be donated. Pints are $6 and 4 packs are $15 with a case limit. Only 30/40 cases. “Because Beer can be Hazy, but not our Rivers.” 2.0 was hopped with El Dorado and Ekuanot hops.
- Saturday, July 21th, Brunch Release of “Hot Fuzz”. Legion Brewing. 11 am- 2 pm. It’s back! Our summertime favorite, “Hot Fuzz”, a Jalapeno-Peach Kettle Sour, returns to the tap room this Saturday, July 21st, at 11AM. This mouth-watering, effervescent Kettle Sour brewed with 100% Riverbend Malt and locally sourced jalapenos and peaches, and the perfect sipper for a hot summer day.
We will be serving up some tasty treats for brunch, including our
Hot Fuzz Chicken Biscuit- a homemade peach biscuit, piled high with a chicken breast, jalapenos, bacon and a spicy honey spread; and our Hot Fuzz Waffle, topped with a peach compote and housemade Chantilly cream, served with bacon.
Our friends from Farmers First Coffee Company will be on hand for the coffee lovers out there!
Hot Fuzz is one of our quickest selling beers, so be sure to grab a pour while you can! - Saturday, July 21st. Belgian Independence Day 2018! Trackside Crafts Pineville. 12 pm-10 pm. It’s Belgian Independence Day, and this will be our 2nd year celebrating great Belgian beers. Join us all day for $2 off crowlers, as usual, and check out some of the best Belgian beers Kit could find!
- Sunday, July 22nd. Cousins Main Lobster at D9 Brewing. D9 Brewing Company. 1 pm-6 pm. Cousins Maine Lobster is back at D9 Brewing for a Sunday full of original crafted ales and authentic Maine lobster.
- Sunday, Jult 22nd. Barleywine, Berg’s and a Share with Central State Brewing. Salud Beer Shop. 12 pm-7 pm. Join us this Sunday as we tap Central State’s Bashi Farmhouse Barleywine along with some other Central State Goodies. Of course we will down Underberg’s and feel free to bring some bottles to share Barleywine or any other style. Central State Dad Jake is coming all the way down from Indy to party with us and Central Stare Southeast rep Jordan. Let’s show him some Charlotte love.
- Tueday, July 24th. NoDable Release: For Richer or for Pourer. (Raspberry Blonde) NoDa Brewing. 4 pm-9 pm. Every single week, we release a brand new “NoDable” beer on Tuesday! This week we’re releasing a tasty raspberry Blonde called For Richer or Pourer.
While you’re here, be sure to try a few of our 25+ brews and some TIN Kitchen for dinner. And, don’t forget you can take this week’s NoDable and many of our other beers to-go in a crowler!
Rogue Ales out of Newport Oregon brews Dead Guy Ale, 6.8% which is a pretty common beer, MaiBock from Rogue Ales. I have previously reviewed this beer and will be putting that older review up on this coming Throwback Thursday review. But I thought I deserved a re-review, and this is a new special bottle that glows and glows like an analog watch. Dead Guy pours a deep orange-brown color with a slightly off-white two finger head that give off malted sweet aromas with a bit of a hoppy note that pull you into the malted flavor that splashes a touch of bitter-sweetness on to your taste buds with the faintest cracker note that finish slightly malty with some hoppy bitterness and an aftertaste of malted bitter orange but not similar to an IPA with a medium mouthfeel. Rogue Ales Dead Guy Ale is still good getting a B here. I found it to be a nice American take on a traditional German style beer that is well balanced. I would recommend this beer to most anyone. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!
The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, one of the oldest in Charlotte, has brought back a beer that they once brewed in their earlier days. This Mecklenburger Helles Lager, 4.9% ABV, is brewing brewed again. The word Helles mean bright, light, or pale in German. Mecklenburger pour a bright pale yellow golden color with a one and a half snow white head that fizzy away rather quick in to small lacing. The aroma is crisp and clean with the faintest hop note and a slightly malted note. Mecklenburger has a refreshingly crisp taste that will take the heat out of a summer day with light malt notes and very faint light hop flavor. This beer is very easy drinking. The mouth feel is light and crisp, with a smooth finish that leads up to an aftertaste that is semi-sweet and cracker like. The flavors on this Helles Lager is not so bold, but they are good. I say this is an A. Mecklenburger is one that you can sit for a few hours and have many. Watch you favorite sport with a few mecklenburgers or call your friends have a party with a case of Mecklenburger. It’s even good after yard work. I highly recommend drinking The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Mecklenburger Helles Lager. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!
A little over two years ago I first reviewed The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Mecklenburger Helles Lager, 4.9% ABV and I thought that it was worth another review, and I will post the first review for this Throwback Thursday post. Mecklenburger Helles Lager is the first beer that OMB brewed and for a while now they have brought the beer back and continue to brew it. Mecklenburger Helles Lager pours a golden color with a bright white snowy two finger quickly fading head that leaves thin lacing behind with aromas of crisp breaded malts with touches of slight sweet notes that take you down to a crisp refreshing flavor of breaded notes with subtle sweetness with a very faint metallic notes that quickly dashes away with a slight dryness and finishes clean crisp with a hint of light sweetness and a crips cracker like aftertaste with a light mouthfeel. This is as good as I remember it and would be a good beer to have more that one or two. The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Mecklenburger Helles Lager is a great beer for your next party. It is an A+ beer not too bold on flavor nor does it not have enough, it just the right balance and well brewed. I highly recommend trying The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Mecklenburger Helles Lager! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!
Picked up this can of NoDa Brewing Company Corn Star Southeastern India Pale Ale, 5.0% ABV in a four-pack a few days away for my local grocery store. Corn Star is brewed with flaked corn, Amarillo, Eureka, Ekuanot, and El Dorado hops. Corn Star pours a gold color with a three finger head that fades quickly down to two fingers before slowly settling in and sticking around to give you aromas of semi-sweet notes with some hoppy notes mixed in that take you to a big smooth flavor of some bitterness with hints os semi-sweetness with a somewhat smooth bitterness on the ends that finishes with a familiar smooth bitterness with a little sweet touch and an big bitter sweet hoppy aftertaste that lingers all with a light mouthfeel. I did not find NoDa Brewing Company Corn Star Southeastern India Pale Ale to be anything out of the ordinary it was average at best, so I give it a D+. It was more bitter and hoppy than crisp or sweetly smooth. I was able to finish a pint of Corn Star and found it not to be the worst IPA I’ve had, but it’s far from the good or the best. You could try it for yourself and see what you think but I would not really recommend it. Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly! 
Clown Shoes Beer The Barista Breakfast Brown Ale, 8.5% ABV is not really a summer beer but I wanted to post a beer that wasn’t an IPA, I have posted lots and lots of the style. This brown ale is brewed with Espresso, oatmeal and milk sugars and to me that sounds more like a port or stout. Interesting that Clown Shoes Beer in Ipswich Massachusetts would but all that into a brown ale. The Barista Breakfast Brown pours a deep brown color with a one finger beige head that fizzes into a nice half inch foamy rim that sticks around leave nice lacing behind with aroma of roasted notes with a slight sweetness and hints of coffee that bring you to a semi sweet roasted coffee taste with a bit of bitterness with a linger faint vanilla notes that finish a bit strong with coffee notes and a mild sweet aftertaste with a full mouthfeel. The Barista Breakfast Brown isn’t bad but the sweetness from the milk sugars aren’t a dominant as I thought they should be. So I give Clown Shoes Beer The Barista Breakfast Brown barley a B-. It wasn’t bad nor great it was just above average and some that might be worth trying! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!
The newest trend in beer is not a new style of beer but something that has been around since beer came to our great nation, the can. The can is beer for the environment, coast less to produce, gets cold quicker, easier for transportation and better for outdoor activities. This canned beer is a local from the Carolina Brewery, called Sky Blue, a Kölsh, 5.0% ABV. Sky Blue pours a nice golden color with a half finger of white head that fades away with the carbonation bubbles. There is lots of light streaming through the beer with lost of fast carbonation bubbles. The aroma on Sky Blue is very juice like with a very faint bread malt scent. This is a good smelling beer. The taste is light with a nice fruit flavor and a hint of the lighter malts coming thought. This beer has a nice crisp taste to it that lends itself fro a refreshing beer. The mouth feel is light and crisp, with a smooth and lightly sweet finish. The after taste is less fruity that it is on the start but still great, and cleans up well. This is a good sessionable beer, not to strong on the ABV or the flavor, this is something good that anyone or I could drink a few of and still enjoy at the end. So this is getting an A- here, a well crafted beer, something that would be a great everyday beer. I would really recommend that you go out and try this beer! I would have this again and again. So go see how you like Blue Sky Golden Ale! Cheers! Please enjoy responsibly!
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