Daniel Hartis

Edge City Brewery didn’t anticipate selling all of its growlers on its first day.
Actually, the brewery didn’t anticipate selling any growlers on its first day.
The brewery, which opened this past Thursday at 6629 Monroe Rd., planned to initially sell draft beers and bring growlers in later. But with statewide restrictions shutting down taprooms and on-premise consumption due to COVID-19, selling beer to-go was the brewery’s only option.
Edge City sold somewhere between 600-800 growlers on Th...

What do you do when the brewery you’ve spent years designing and building is set to open during a worldwide pandemic?
You open your doors, of course.
“You just have to go with the flow,” said Ginger Griffin, who recently opened Royal Bliss Brewing in Denver with her husband, Larry Griffin Jr. “Anytime you start a new business, regardless of the industry, you have to be adaptable. But I think the nicest thing about the community we’re in is that everyone has been excited about us to open.”
The...

The Unknown Brewery recently released its first bottles of Good Hands hand sanitizer and has donated some to area hospitals in need. Tyler Powell/The Unknown Brewing Co. CharlotteFive
When Brad Shell decided to open a distillery, he never thought his first release would be hand sanitizer.
The founder of The Unknown Brewing Co. will eventually release small-batch gins, rums and other spirits, but for now he’s focused on filling a more critical need.
The brewery and distillery released the firs...

If you were to roll down Central Avenue on any given Saturday before this pandemic, you might have seen a crowd of people at Resident Culture Brewing Co. for the brewery’s latest can releases.
And for good reason. Resident Culture — and other local breweries — have higher margins in their taprooms than they do at area bars and bottle shops. Keeping high-demand cans in-house is just smart business.
But of course, things have changed since taprooms are now closed to the public due to North Caro...

Salud Cerveceria was packed with beer celebrities.

Renowned brewers like Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead Brewery, Cory King from Side Project Brewing and Chad Yacobson of Crooked Stave were in town for Lager Fest, which was held at Resident Culture Brewing Co. last August.

These brewers brought some of their best beers...

The beer scene in Charlotte has steadily grown since Olde Mecklenburg Brewery opened in 2009. Courtesy of Olde Mecklenburg Brewery CharlotteFive
As we move into a new decade, it’s always fun to look back at the previous 10 years. That’s especially true considering our current beer scene is now just a little more than a decade old itself (if you take The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery’s opening in 2009 as your starting point).
I’ve been fortunate enough to cover brewing in Charlotte for the better p...

Courtesy of NoDa Brewing Co.
The craft beer industry, perhaps more than others, can be unpredictable. Most got into the industry because they enjoyed experimenting across a variety of styles as home brewers, and that usually continues once they go pro. While every brewery has to find its own balance between paying the bills with core offerings and pushing the proverbial envelope, most shake things up with the styles they brew, the ingredients they use and the flavors they achieve.
It’s exciti...

NoDa Brewing Co.’s Chad Henderson dumps freshly harvested Citra hops into Sticky When Wet, which the brewery will release on Friday. Courtesy of NoDa Brewing Co.
Pumpkin beers arrived in August, and Oktoberfest beers hold sway at many of Charlotte’s breweries. But what of that other fall seasonal, the wet-hop beer?
Brewed with freshly harvested hops, wet-hop beers showcase a distinct hop character that dried hops often can’t match. There’s a reason, however, that you don’t see many examples h...

Wooden Robot Brewery is on track to open its new brewery in NoDa this year. Charlotte Observer file
As we begin a new year, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the state of the beer industry and where it’s headed. The total volume of craft beer produced increased 5 percent through the middle of 2018, according to the Brewers Association, but that pace pales in comparison to the double-digit growth that seemed unstoppable a few short years ago.
Breweries continue to open, though not with th...

Fonta Flora Brewery’s Todd Boera has brewed with a variety of locally-grown ingredients, from carrots and kiwis to grain and even bread.
What he hasn’t had the luxury of brewing with, however, is space.
At the brewery and tasting room in the Appalachian town of Morganton, North Carolina, Boera brews on a 3.5-barrel system. The brewing space is confined to just 300 square feet.

Few people can claim 70-plus acres of land as their office. Fewer still hold the title of plant whisperer.
Both are true for Stacia McAlpine of Rogue Farms in Independence, Oregon. McAlpine works the fields that are home to many of the ingredients that find their way into Rogue’s beers, spirits, ciders and sodas.

Thousands of beer lovers across America will celebrate today as National Beer Day, but unless you’ve seen this video from Buffalo Wild Wings–the birthplace of the holiday–you won’t know that the holiday resulted from the efforts of one man in particular.

"Whether manmade or natural, more brewers are going underground with their barrel-aging programs."

From a new hoppy lager to hazy IPAs, these are the best beers we tasted this week.

To most, 75 pounds of persimmons would seem plenty. But for Sean Lilly Wilson, it was just enough to brew the inaugural batch of Fullsteam Brewery’s First Frost.