All you need is love and craft beer for a Valentine’s Day that’s oh, so Charlotte.
Dark and decadent, is there any style of beer better suited to Valentine’s Day than the humble stout? Our local brewers seem to agree, as many are releasing new stouts or bringing back fan favorites ahead of the heartfelt holiday. With inspiration and ingredients ranging from cheesecake to King Cake and oysters to ice cream, you’re likely to find a few stouts here you’ll love.
Available now
Free Range Brewing - Sea of Companions
Whether you believe oysters are an aphrodisiac or simply love their salty taste, Free Range’s latest batch of Sea of Companions is a natural choice for Valentine’s Day. While an oyster stout might sound exotic, the style’s been around for well over a century. To brew Sea of Companions, Free Range added oysters from Shell’em Seafood Co. right in the boil. You can pick up a four-pack of 12-ounce cans for $16 at the brewery or the new tasting room at Optimist Hall. Later this month, the brewery will host a pop-up with Shell’em Seafood Co., where you’ll be able to purchase bags of fresh, sustainably-harvested oysters to take home.
High Branch Brewing Co. - Into the Dark
As part of its annual Into the Dark event last Friday, Concord’s High Branch released three imperial stouts: Time After Time, brewed with peanut butter, Madagascar vanilla beans, vanilla salt and cacao nibs; More Bark Than Bite, brewed with coffee, maple and cinnamon; and Awkward Laughs, brewed with cinnamon, cheesecake and vanilla. If you’re drooling and sad you missed out, don’t be — those beers and other stouts can still be found at High Branch’s online shop.
Legal Remedy Brewing - Nuptials Neapolitan Milk Stout
This milk stout, which the brewery likens to a “chocolate-covered strawberry,” just returned on draft and in cans. The 6% beer is brewed with chocolate malt, roasted barley, brown sugar, lactose and strawberry purée. So where does the name come in? The brewery says these ingredients combine to form “the perfect marriage of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.” A four-pack of 12-ounce cans is $10.
Divine Barrel Brewing - The Universe is a Donut
Divine Barrel’s popular pastry stout is indulgent, and you need only look at the ingredients to see why. The 10.5% imperial stout is brewed with vanilla, cocoa nibs, lactose, the brewery’s own coffee roast from Magnolia Coffee and more than 60 pounds of glazed donuts from Reigning Doughnuts. If you’re looking for a sweet stout, you’ve found it. Or, if you’re looking for something more traditional, the brewery currently has cans of its oatmeal stout, as well. Both beers are $16.99 for a four-pack. The brewery also just released cans of its pilsner and Cherry Connick Jr., a cherry pastry sour, this week.
Releases Friday
Catawba Brewing Co. - King Cake Pastry Stout
We won’t blame you if you drink this King Cake-inspired beer for Valentine’s Day, but you might save a can or two for your Fat Tuesday pancake dinner. The beer is brewed with lactose, cinnamon and vanilla flavor, and though this is the third year Catawba has brewed it, it’s the first time the brewery has put it in cans. Four-packs of 16-ounce cans are $16 each, and the beer will be on draft at the brewery. Catawba also has cans of its Black Is Beautiful stout, which the brewery recently released.
The DreamChaser’s Brewery - The Wail of the Baen Sidhe
Irish for “wail of the banshee,” this imperial stout from Waxhaw’s only brewery was brewed with chocolate and orange and aged in barrels that once held Rúa, Great Wagon Road Distilling Co.’s award-winning single malt whiskey. The 10% beer is available in 22-ounce bombers and features a label design by Maddy Stratton, a UNC Chapel Hill student who has done all of the labels for this beer since it debuted in 2017. Bottles are $23 with a limit of two per person and will be available when the brewery opens at 1 p.m. this Friday.
Triple C Brewing Co. - Chocolate Covered Pretzel Stout
Triple C Brewing Co.’s Chocolate Covered Pretzel Stout is one of the brewery’s most popular seasonal releases, and this year, fans of the barrel-aged stout also have two new variants to enjoy. This Friday, the brewery will release cans of the bourbon-barrel-aged Chocolate Covered Pretzel Stout, as well as Bananas Foster and Cinnamon Swirl versions. All will be on draft and in cans ($30 a four-pack for the standard version, $32 for the two new variants), and Izzy’s at Triple C will be selling a dessert pizza.
BONUS: Carolina Beer Temple - Dark Matter Event
Carolina Beer Temple will host its second annual Dark Matter event this weekend at both the Ayrsley and Matthews locations, with more than 20 stouts on draft that range from local (Captain Peanut Butter’s Chocolate Revenge from NoDa Brewing Co.) to international (barrel-aged Delirium Black from Belgium’s Huyghe Brewery). The Matthews location will tap 17 imperial stouts Saturday, and the Ayrsley location will tap seven stouts from Friday to Sunday. Check the Facebook event page for the full list of beers and forthcoming details on commemorative glassware and T-shirts.
Releases Sunday, Feb. 14
The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery - Barrel-Aged Fat Boy
Fat Boy isn’t a stout but it is OMB’s biggest and darkest beer, and the line between Baltic porters and stouts is often a thin one. There is one important distinction: like all of OMB’s beers, Fat Boy is lagered for several weeks. On top of that, this special annual release also spent time in barrels that once held Rúa whiskey from the brewery’s former neighbors at Great Wagon Road Distilling Co. In years past, you had to purchase a ticket to the brunch to get bottles. This year you can still enjoy a Valentine’s brunch, or you can purchase bottles separately for $13.99 each (buy two, and you also receive a commemorative glass). The brewery will also tap five versions aged in different barrels: 2019 Rúa, 2020 Rúa, Rúa Port Wine, Muddy River Rum and Doc Porter’s Bourbon.
Releases Thursday, Feb. 18
Birdsong Brewing Co. - Turtles on Pterodactyls
OK, so Valentine’s Day will have come and gone by this point, along with all of those rich and decadent stouts. What to do? Fortunately, Birdsong Brewing Co. is releasing Turtles on Pterodactyls next Thursday. The brewery’s popular imperial stout is aged on cinnamon and cacao nibs in Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels. It will be available on draft and in 16-ounce four-packs of cans for $18.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 9:30 AM.
