Charlotte Beer Trail: Danny drinks 9 beers from 9 breweries in 9 hours
Charlotte’s beer scene is exploding. Charlotte is unique in that nine of its breweries are located in a somewhat straight line, grouped together at times, allowing an idiot like me to start at one end of the beer corridor (see map and you’ll know what I mean) and work my way from start to finish, drinking a beer at each place, all in about nine hours on a nice Saturday. It’s great fun.
I did this a few Saturdays ago and had a wonderful time. I don’t know if I’ve gone to sleep earlier on a Saturday (or any day) since I was in elementary school. I sent my schedule to the only three people in the world that cared about it, my parents and Ted. They joined me for a few beers. Best part of the journey was seeing that every single brewery I went to was slammed with people. Charlotte has cool breweries. Charlotte likes cool breweries.
NOTE: When ordering beer, I went with my gut or bartender’s recommendation. I did not take style, taste or ABV into account. Out of principle, I decided I was going to finish every last drop of every beer. This ends up being huge (YUGE).
Here’s how it went down:
(1) 12:30pm – Sugar Creek Brewing
I got picked up by my parents (I’m responsible) and we drove to Sugar Creek and I got a pale ale. It was tasty. I’d crushed some chicken before I got there so my stomach was ready to break down beers (that’s exactly how it works by the way). My mom and dad were there. Free popcorn was yummy.
(2) 1:00pm – Olde Mecklenburg Brewery
Walked from Sugar Creek. Was incredibly easy. Sugar Creek is actually located in OMB’s old brewery/brauhaus right around the corner. Captain Jack. Charlotte staple. Easy to drink. Great to slam with a pretzel and beer cheese.
(3) 1:35pm – Triple C Brewing
Got a ride here. Light Rail Pale Ale. Lots of dogs here. Ted showed up.
(4) 2:16pm – Lenny Boy Brewing
Got a ride. Easy walk, but we were behind schedule. Got a Tripel called the Mirage. Three beers in and I was already wondering why I was doing what I was doing and thinking about how I was only 1/3 of the way through the day. I did try one of their kombuchas. It was super refreshing. First thought was how good it would taste with vodka…
(5) 2:52pm – Sycamore Brewing
The walk from Lenny Boy to Sycamore was a breeze. Two minutes. Sycamore is new (opened in November) and is located pretty much on the light rail in between a bunch of apartments, but I was still shocked to see wall-to-wall crowds outside, by the bar and inside the entire place. They will crush it during Spring and Summer. And Fall probably. And they appear to be crushing it now. Everyone there seemed to be in their 20’s. You go, Sycamore. Oh, and I got an amber.
(6) 3:58pm – Unknown Brewing
We walked from Sycamore to Unknown. Honestly, not a bad walk. It was nice out and there are a lot of interesting places in between. Would’ve been a cooler walk if I had a skateboard and a nice camera or some models. Or if anyone bothered to spray paint an inspirational message for me in the street. Maybe next time.
Unknown had their entire brewing area filled with people. They were hosting an art auction for two young men with spina bifida. Very cool.
They have TV’s here, and I created the schedule around the Heels-Louisville game, so I was happy. Ted was gone by now on baby duty, and my parents left, so for the first time in my life all day, I was completely and utterly alone. Actually, I was enjoying a Silverback Stout that I only ordered because of the poster on the wall, and the Heels were playing well.
(7) 5:10pm – NoDa Brewing
After the first half of the game, and my beer, I ordered a Lyft (ordered, I didn’t call a Lyft, people don’t call an Uber, sorry) and Al picked me up. Al was freaking weird. He referred to his GPS as “Joyce” and called her his “navigator hero.” I gave him five stars. My roommate met me at NoDa and was going to be my designated driver the rest of the evening. Heels blew a lead and lost, but my Jam Session was great. Now, by this time, things were getting really intense, and I started to wonder if I was going to be able to hit stops 8 and 9 was very happy that I was doing what I was doing.
(8) 5:56pm – Birdsong Brewing
Birdsong has peanuts. Peanuts on peanuts on peanuts. Peanuts as far as the eye can see. I love peanuts. I love them more when I’ve been drinking for close to 6 hours. They have bowls where you can put the shells. It’s great. Love peanuts. And I had a Jalapeńo Pale Ale. Good stuff.
(9) 6:48pm (?) – Heist Brewery
FINAL STOP. YES. Heist had a NINETY-MINUTE wait for dinner. WHAT??? Sat at the bar. Promptly ordered a water. I love water almost as much as I love peanuts. Actually, if Lenny Boy did a peanut-water kombucha, I’d be there every night of my life.
Anyway, bartender asked if I was ready to order a beer. I gave her a suuuuure yeaaaa TOOOOTally ready for more beer and asked what I should get. She recommended the Cataclysm II, an imperial stout that came in at a whopping 12.6% ABV. I promptly ordered some tot-chos, stuff on cheese stuff on tater tots. Perfect. I was fired up. The beer was the best beer I’d had all day. Now, this may have had to do with several factors, but I’m going to believe it actually was the best I had all day, because @CharlotteBeer said it was and his name is Charlotte Beer, so I’m PRETTY sure he knows his stuff.
7:36pm – Staring at three more large sips of beer
This was brutal. I was enjoying the beer, but it physically hurt me to continue. Chicken, beer, peanuts, popcorn, beer, water, more water and tot-chos were sitting in my stomach, and they didn’t want any more friends to join. But, man, if I would’ve listened to those sounds inside my stomach, I wouldn’t feel right writing this. I finished those last sips of beer, celebrated with a quiet fist pump, rode home with my roommate and was in bed by 8pm.
I woke up around 3am, was up until 6am (just hanging out, not hungover or anything. I love TV programs between 3-6am). Then I was asleep from 6am until about noon Sunday. Wow. What a day.
Charlotte has great beer, great places to drink beer, and a beer corridor that lets idiots go to nine of them, get a beer at each and still spend less than $100 on food, rides, beer and peanuts. And I love peanuts.
A video posted by CharlotteFive (@cltfive) on Feb 9, 2015 at 12:04pm PST
This story was originally published February 11, 2015 at 1:08 AM with the headline "Charlotte Beer Trail: Danny drinks 9 beers from 9 breweries in 9 hours."