Drinking Beer in Charlotte

[kermit]

Camp Northend is getting a Free Range outpost

http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/July-2019/Free-Range-Brewing-to-Open-Camp-North-End-Location/

 

[grodney]

12 hours ago, kermit said:

Camp Northend is getting a Free Range outpost

http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/July-2019/Free-Range-Brewing-to-Open-Camp-North-End-Location/

 

Nice!  So that's just 13 more breweries to open in CharMeck in 2019, hahahahaha.

Updated map: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zvfji2eVQoVE.kz5BFo-0quQ8

 

[grodney]

Wooden Robot at 36th St.....soft open early next week, with Grand Opening Sat Jun 29: https://www.charlottefive.com/wooden-robot-noda-2019/

 

[Matthew.Brendan]

I'll tell ya, they are literally steps off of the 36th platform..... I can only imagine Fri/Sat nights here. Looks like they have steps up to a roof top patio as well.

[Scribe]

32 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

I'll tell ya, they are literally steps off of the 36th platform..

Can confirm... I ate Jeni's icecream at their wooden patio tables this past weekend. This place is going to be packed.

Gotta say, it looked like a lot of punch work still left to be done, so hopefully they make it for the soft opening.

[grodney]

From everything I've read, there won't be a brewhouse at Wooden Robot's 36th St location.  They will have 4 big foeders and a bunch of barrels.  Does anybody know how they and Legion transport beer into those foeders?  Various articles give the size of these as 40 bbl each.....that's 1260 gallons, which is a lot of goddam beer to be transporting.

[CLT>]

On 6/19/2019 at 7:30 AM, grodney said:

From everything I've read, there won't be a brewhouse at Wooden Robot's 36th St location.  They will have 4 big foeders and a bunch of barrels.  Does anybody know how they and Legion transport beer into those foeders?  Various articles give the size of these as 40 bbl each.....that's 1260 gallons, which is a lot of goddam beer to be transporting.

Employees load tons of growlers onto the Blue Line and try not to run across a fare inspector...

[Crown]

On 6/13/2019 at 6:51 PM, kermit said:

Camp Northend is getting a Free Range outpost

http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/July-2019/Free-Range-Brewing-to-Open-Camp-North-End-Location/

 

Was there on Friday night and this is DESPERATELY needed. Link below to the video of the line for the NoDa company store canteen outpost there . The food trucks (only two) were both 20+ people deep 

https://imgur.com/a/5yn1VS6

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by Crown

[CLT>]

Interesting news. This could be cool, and finally gets Charlotte a major production brewery. Though the folks at Olde Meck might not be thrilled

One of the oldest beer-makers in Germany plans massive brewery in Charlotte
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/whats-in-store/article231928643.html

[InSouthPark]

13 hours ago, CLT> said:

Interesting news. This could be cool, and finally gets Charlotte a major production brewery. Though the folks at Olde Meck might not be thrilled

One of the oldest beer-makers in Germany plans massive brewery in Charlotte
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/whats-in-store/article231928643.html

Oh the hate from John and OMB will be flowing....LOL.   Expect new OMB "welcoming" billboards when they open the taproom.  

[grodney]

CharMeck breweries planning to open in 2019:

1. Wooden Robot NoDa - NoDa - Jun 29
2. Suffolk Punch at Noble Smoke - Freedom Dr - Jul 25
3. Middle James - Pineville
4. Lower Left - Nations Crossing
5. Fonta Flora - Optimist Hall
6. Petty Thieves - North End
7. D9 Uptown Pavilion - Stonewall - I can't believe Pavilion only has 1 "l".  Weird.
8. Axiom - Elizabeth
9. Free Range Camp North End - North End
10. Traust - Westsiiiiiiiiide
11. Edge City - Monroe Road
12. Southern Solstice  - Gold District
13. OMB Cornelius - Cornelius
14. Gilde The Embassy - Double-secret location chosen from 5 candidate double-secret locations

 

[CTiger]

14 hours ago, CLT> said:

One of the oldest beer-makers in Germany plans massive brewery in Charlotte
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/whats-in-store/article231928643.html

This is sort of a bizarre story, and I'm struggling to make sense of it.   This is not some sort of massive European brewery trying to make a splash in the US.  Gilde is a relatively unknown regional German brewery that pretty much just makes a pilsener. Even that beer only has  23 reviews on BeerAdvocate.  They also only have 12k check-ins on Untappd (OMB has 170k for reference).  The brewery has virtually no online presence.  

This doesn't mean the beer won't be good, but it seems like a very ambitious plan for a brewery that makes one "okayish" beer halfway across the world for a small audience.  I think they may be heavily underestimating the type of competition they will find in the states.  

[InSouthPark]

^^ Middle James is saying last weekend in July for opening.  

[cltbwimob]

23 minutes ago, CTiger said:

This is sort of a bizarre story, and I'm struggling to make sense of it.   This is not some sort of massive European brewery trying to make a splash in the US.  Gilde is a relatively unknown regional German brewery that pretty much just makes a pilsener. Even that beer only has  23 reviews on BeerAdvocate.  They also only have 12k check-ins on Untappd (OMB has 170k for reference).  The brewery has virtually no online presence.  

This doesn't mean the beer won't be good, but it seems like a very ambitious plan for a brewery that makes one "okayish" beer halfway across the world for a small audience.  I think they may be heavily underestimating the type of competition they will find in the states.  

Their operation in Germany looks pretty big to be for a relatively unknown regional with a small audience.  Their capacity there is supposedly capable of 850k bbl/year.  I think their longterm plan is to make a big splash in the US and Charlotte is their entry point/market.  You can’t be in business for nearly 5 centuries and not know what you’re doing.

 

I think this property is all theirs

Edited June 27, 2019 by cltbwimob

[InSouthPark]

14 minutes ago, CTiger said:

This is sort of a bizarre story, and I'm struggling to make sense of it.   This is not some sort of massive European brewery trying to make a splash in the US.  Gilde is a relatively unknown regional German brewery that pretty much just makes a pilsener. Even that beer only has  23 reviews on BeerAdvocate.  They also only have 12k check-ins on Untappd (OMB has 170k for reference).  The brewery has virtually no online presence.  

This doesn't mean the beer won't be good, but it seems like a very ambitious plan for a brewery that makes one "okayish" beer halfway across the world for a small audience.  I think they may be heavily underestimating the type of competition they will find in the states.  

Not exactly.   In 2017 they brewed approx 21,000,000 gallons of beer (that's about 675,000 barrels).  My guess is it's a local beer that is widely consumed in central Germany.   I will be in Hamburg next week so I will look to see how widely available it is in the grocery stores.  They were part of InBev but were sold off in 2016 to a private company.   https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilde_Brauerei (some google translating is needed).

[CTiger]

29 minutes ago, cltbwimob said:

Their operation in Germany looks pretty big to be for a relatively unknown regional with a small audience.  Their capacity there is supposedly capable of 850k bbl/year.  I think their longterm plan is to make a big splash in the US and Charlotte is their entry point/market.  You can’t be in business for nearly 5 centuries and not know what you’re doing.

 

28 minutes ago, InSouthPark said:

Not exactly.   In 2017 they brewed approx 21,000,000 gallons of beer (that's about 675,000 barrels).  My guess is it's a local beer that is widely consumed in central Germany.   I will be in Hamburg next week so I will look to see how widely available it is in the grocery stores.  They were part of InBev but were sold off in 2016 to a private company.   https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilde_Brauerei (some google translating is needed).

Way bigger than I had thought it was.  Thanks for the info.  I'd love to get my hands on some of this to see what its all about.

[InSouthPark]

Just now, CTiger said:

 

Way bigger than I had thought it was.  Thanks for the info.  I'd love to get my hands on some of this to see what its all about.

I will report back next week.  Space in my suitcase however is already reserved for other beers I am trading with my German colleagues! 

[grodney]

1 hour ago, InSouthPark said:

^^ Middle James is saying last weekend in July for opening.  

Man I hope.  I mean, in December they were saying January.  In May they were saying June.  

[InSouthPark]

1 minute ago, grodney said:

Man I hope.  I mean, in December they were saying January.  In May they were saying June.  

Me too.  Besides Legion SP, this would be the second closest brewery to my new place and makes trip to Target less painful (but more costly).

[grodney]

Uh oh, Bold Missy doing a crowdfunding campaign at IFundWomen: https://ifundwomen.com/projects/bold-missy-brewery

They've raised 14K of a 50K goal.

 

 

[CLTProductions]

43 minutes ago, grodney said:

Uh oh, Bold Missy doing a crowdfunding campaign at IFundWomen: https://ifundwomen.com/projects/bold-missy-brewery

They've raised 14K of a 50K goal.

 

 

Yikes not a good sign, I wonder if it's location or....Divine Barrel seems to do just fine. It seems like they are fundraising to "grow" rather than "survive" but who knows

Edited June 28, 2019 by Jayvee

[InSouthPark]

54 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

Yikes not a good sign, I wonder if it's location or....Divine Barrel seems to do just fine. It seems like they are fundraising to "grow" rather than "survive" but who knows

Yeaaaaaah...if you are really having problems keeping up with demand, you can certainly afford to get a loan to buy more tanks.   Every other brewery in CLT had no problem buying new tanks as demand increased.  Heck most "young" places are buying their tanks from other Charlotte breweries as they scale up.   

I don't buy it and would give them another year or two.   Either their owner just doesn't have the money needed to stay in the game long enough or there is just no demand for it.  In my usual spots, I have only seen it on tap once (heck I saw Three Spirits on tap way more than that). 

[tozmervo]

I've never been under the impression that they're struggling, it just seemed like a novel way to raise some investment money. I think it's pretty astonishing that they have raised that much, TBH. (over $18k now)

[wilmore]

3 hours ago, Jayvee said:

Yikes not a good sign, I wonder if it's location or....Divine Barrel seems to do just fine. It seems like they are fundraising to "grow" rather than "survive" but who knows

well in pretty much their immediate neighborhood the following are far better breweries:

Robot

Heist

Divine

NoDa

Won't work for on-premise unless they're busy on multiple weekdays, and as mentioned, they're basically in distro nowhere. So I would be surprised to see this go well. 

[grodney]

On 12/10/2018 at 8:45 AM, grodney said:

Looking to 2019, my list looks like:

Nearly for sure (hahaha, as if):
Middle James  (the Pineville)
Heist  - 2nd taproom (NoEn)
Armored Cow (University)
Lower Left  (SoQuPa)
Wooden Robot - NoDa (NoDa)
Fonta Flora CLT (OpPa!)
Protagonist Clubhouse (NoDa)

Allegedly:
Petty Thieves Brewing (NoEn)

Possibly:
Suffolk Punch at Noble Smoke (Freedom Dr)
OMB - 2nd Location (Cornelius)

 

 

Any reports from Wooden Robot on 36th?

 

6 months into 2019, let's get an update on the list above:

Opened:

1. Heist - 2nd taproom
2. Protagonist Clubhouse
3. Armored Cow
4. Wooden Robot NoDa

Still waiting, and still targeting 2019 as far as I know:

1. Middle James
2. Lower Left
3. Fonta Flora Optimist Hall
4. Petty Thieves
5. Suffolk Punch at Noble Smoke
6. OMB - Cornelius (honestly I don't know if they're still targeting 2019....haven't seen anything in forever)

Discovered/announced in 2019 with a stated target opening in 2019:

1. D9 Uptown Pavilion
2. Axiom
3. Free Range - Camp North End
4. Traust
5. Edge City
6. Southern Solstice
7. Gilde The Embassy