Drinking Beer in Charlotte

[grodney]

Sharing my New Year's Eve #cltbeer with my fellow UPers.  Went to OMB at 2:30 and it was PACKED.  Not a seat to be had.  So we left.  Went to NoDa and had some beers and Tiger Yakatori.  Ready to head home, I-77 was packed so I stayed on Graham/Mint/Tryon.  As we pass Unknown my wife says "I've never been there!", so we stopped for a flight.  Headed home after that, we pass Wooden Robot and my girls scream "we love that place!" so we stopped for a flight and some parmesan truffle fries.  Finally got home for some Sugar Creek Anniversay Trippel in a Charlotte Map pint glass.  Happy New Year, friends.  

p.s. Tomorrow is probably Birdsong at Noon for bloody beers and coffee IPA, then Sugar Creek to see if they have any Muscadine Wit aged in Cabernet left, followed by the traditional New Year round of frisbee golf (with Jalapeno and Hop Drop, natch) and then the Iowa game!!

p.p.s The view of uptown from Graham (north of 277) is AWESOME!!!  It looks SO WIDE.  

 

Edited January 1, 2016 by grodney

[ah59396]

^^^This was a world class post.

 

Happy New Years Grodney.  And all the UPers!  My wife works the night shift at the hospital, so I'm celebrating on my couch with some Old Rasputin, Lagavulin and, depending on if I'm up for it, some Kilchoman Loch Gorm at 12.

[nonillogical]

I finally got to check out Legion on New Year's Day. Really, really impressive. It might be my favorite tap room so far, though I haven't been to all our breweries yet. They did a great job with the layout and spacing, and lots of great details with reclaimed wood used in a variety of ways. Having a patio with a skyline view is certainly nice as well. 

The Juicy J is probably second only to Hop Drop for my favorite IPA in town, but they couldn't be more different. I guess I can only describe it as, well, juicy. Everything else I tried was good to great, including their oatmeal stout, pepper saison, and white IPA. 

[ah59396]

I was at Legion the day after New Years.  Can also confirm, love the interior, love the beers.  Very solid addition to not only P Midwood, but the Charlotte beer scene.

[boochops]

Juicy J at Legion might be my new favorite beer. Love it and the building. I used to work in the tiny house that was in Legion's parking lot, so there are a lot of memories there. And Grodney, I love that pint glass so much I bought one for my husband for Christmas. If anyone is looking for them, check them out at Moxie, my favorite new gift shop that opened just down from Legion in the old Bridal Originals house. 

[HopHead]

I went to Legion last week as well (Wednesday). Agree with what everyone said above. The decor inside is really cool. I also like the balcony that overlooks the fermenting tanks. Juicy J is an excellent IPA. Oat Stout and Maple Canyon were my other favorites... 

[grodney]

Birdsong is releasing Lazy Bird Brown in cans tomorrow according to the twittersphere.  I'm assuming this will be a year-round always-available thing like Jalapeno, but they haven't stated that.

Triple C has announced BabyMaker will be in cans this year, but no date given.  Can design is nice, and consistent with their other cans and with the BabyMaker bombers.

NoDa has promised they will have several more year-round offerings in cans this year.

I think Sycamore said they're going to can/bottle something coming up fairly soon, but I'm fuzzy on that.

Year-round always available CLTBEERs in non-bombers:

NoDa - Hop Drop, Coco Loco, Jam Session, CAVU

Triple C - 3C, Golden Boy

Unknown - Over The Edge, Pre-Game

Birdsong - Jalapeno, Lazy Bird

Sugar Creek - Pale Ale

OMB - Copper, Pilsner, others?

Did I miss any?

 

 

[grodney]

You've probably already seen this, but due to the self-distribution cap, OMB is pulling out of the Triad including ditching several jobs and their refrigerated warehouse.  http://www.charlottefive.com/why-a-state-law-is-causing-olde-mecklenburg-brewery-to-pause-its-expansion/

Oh by the way, the co-chair of the House ABC Committee is Rep. Jon Hardister.  He's from Greensboro, where there's lost jobs and lost warehouse leasing and no more OMB.  His committee failed to send 2 bills to the floor last session that would have raised the cap.  Oh, he also got $3,000 in donations from the NC Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association last election year.  They were his second-largest contributor.   (They contribute to LOTS of reps and senators....to the tune of $210,000 in 2014.)  Maybe those two House Bills got lost under stacks of CASH.  (Hey, any political cartoonists on board?!  I envision a wholesaler truck (Bud, natch) dumping a pile of cash into the ABC Committee room, with the aforementioned House Bills barely peeking out as they get lost.)

 

 

Edited January 7, 2016 by grodney

[HopHead]

Interesting info on the donations, Grodney. Do you have a link or point of reference for that info? I think that's a great thing that should get more publicity. Perhaps to help get more noise made about this.. It's nothing new that politicians are some of the biggest wh0res when it comes to money. Sickening never the less. 

[grodney]

6 minutes ago, HopHead said:

Interesting info on the donations, Grodney. Do you have a link or point of reference for that info? I think that's a great thing that should get more publicity. Perhaps to help get more noise made about this.. It's nothing new that politicians are some of the biggest wh0res when it comes to money. Sickening never the less. 

It's all here:  http://www.followthemoney.org/

You can query for donors (just search for NORTH CAROLINA BEER and it will come up) or for legislators (Hardister and so forth).

 

[grodney]

Big picture alert:

 

p.s. Rep. Boles is the other co-chair of the ABC Committee.

p.p.s. As info, the last session the 2 bills that had a chance to up the cap never made it out of committee.  There's no saying they would have passed a vote in the House (not to mention the Senate), but it never even got that far.

p.p.p.s. I asked Sen. Jeff Jackson the best strategy to get the cap raised, and his response was to concentrate on the jobs lost to the cap.  I'm not sure that's the strongest argument, but that was his advice.

Edited January 7, 2016 by grodney

[CLTProductions]

I love getting loud. Gimme some time to work on a case for this. Given our GAs lack of doing anything productive I wouldn't get hopes up 

[grodney]

7 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

I love getting loud. Gimme some time to work on a case for this. Given our GAs lack of doing anything productive I wouldn't get hopes up 

I mentioned/tagged Hardister on a tweet about OMB pulling out of his area, and Jonathan Wells quickly shot back making "special mention" that Hardister is "one of the good guys".  I have no idea why -- I know NOTHING beyond the facts stated above.  Perhaps the new coalition "Craft Freedom NC" is trying to be super-nice as they lobby for change, and don't necessarily like dudes like me flying off the handle at these legislators.  That's probably a good strategy (being nice).

(Not to imply that Wells is part of the coalition, but he's certainly more connected to the real beer people in town than I am!)

My personal windmill to tilt at is the stupid "no sunday sales" thing.  I need to get back to that.  REPEAL 18B-1004(c)!!!!!!!

Edited January 7, 2016 by grodney

[CLTProductions]

Wells is working on this for the Agenda. I'm gonna talk to him, but yeah being nice is definitely a good strategy but we have to be hard hitting too 

[elrodvt]

Turn over to C.O. for an article?

[grodney]

5 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

Turn over to C.O. for an article?

The creation of Craft Freedom NC and the few recent articles are what I believe are just the first steps as NoDa, OMB and others really ramp up the effort to get the cap raised (or removed).  If they (the breweries in the form of Craft Freedom NC) haven't gone to the Observer, I'm sure they will soon.

Oh here's another example: There was a recent spate of articles when it leaked out that AB-InBev is offering incentives to distributors who sell X% (I think 98%?) AB-InBev product.  So that was a good tie-in to forced distribution....essentially making these craft brewers rely on distributors who are being paid big bucks to NOT place craft beer on shelves and taps.  http://www.wsj.com/articles/craft-brewers-take-issue-with-ab-inbev-distribution-plan-1449227668  

"

The world’s largest brewer last month introduced a new incentive program that could offer some independent distributors in the U.S. annual reimbursements of as much as $1.5 million if 98% of the beers they sell are AB InBev brands, according to two distributors who requested confidentiality because they were asked not to discuss the plan. Distributors whose sales volumes are 95% made up of AB InBev brands would be eligible to have the brewer cover as much as half of their contractual marketing support for those brands, which includes retail promotion and display costs.

"

 

[elrodvt]

Capitalism? I think not.... Be interesting to see someone go after them for antitrust. Spoken by someone who knows nothing about the law.

I seem to remember a brave move by QCB to opt out.

[Crown]

Heard some rumblings about Heist today . . . anyone else out there hearing anything? 

[CLTProductions]

20 minutes ago, Crown said:

 

Edited January 8, 2016 by Jayvee

[HopHead]

35 minutes ago, Crown said:

Heard some rumblings about Heist today . . . anyone else out there hearing anything? 

Define rumblings..

[Prodev]

Go on...

[JRNYP2C]

All of this is making me WANT to boycott drinking anything other than craft beer (local or state made).  In fact, I cannot remember the last time I drank a domestic beer (aka Budweiser).  And I make a point to research the local breweries wherever I am going to patronize their establishments.  That includes anywhere in NC and outside of NC. 

[kermit]

Might be old news but I was pleasantly surprised to see Birdsong JPA 4 packs at the East Blvd Teeter for $9.

 

[go_vertical]

Just more of a reason why the oppressive production cap needs to go away. The more these guys can produce the less expensive it can become for us. I'm sure OMB six packs could drop to $7 or $8 if they could produce higher volumes.

[SgtCampsalot]

46 minutes ago, kermit said:

Might be old news but I was pleasantly surprised to see Birdsong JPA 4 packs at the East Blvd Teeter for $9.

 

Best beer in the city right there. Best beer in the city.