Local Brewery: Unknown Brewing

This time, I'm going to profile a brewery near and dear to my heart. The owner, Brad Shell, lives up the street from me, so I've been seeing his vehicles since they initially opened up. My mom and I visited their brewery as part of the St. Patrick's Day South End brewery crawl a few years ago, which was shortly after they opened. Brad led a tour of the brewing operation and I was struck by his charisma, his experience, and his passion. And I dug the concept essence of the brewery, "Step into the unknown," complete with wall of photos of people doing wacky stuff, but upon sampling their beer, I was unimpressed, to say the least.

I gave them another shot when the Charlotte Roller Girls were invited to an event held there, Craft Chicks Hustle Harder. It was a showcase of bands with female singers, female artisans and vendors, and some ladies on aerial silks. That was the day they were releasing No Shame Ginger Wheat. Given beer tickets, I was only too happy to sample what I thought would be a delightfully refreshing ale. And it wasn't. The ginger flavor was muddy and the underlying wheat beer was just ok. I did enjoy the Pregame Session Ale.

I kept trying their beers, because the idea of Unknown Brewing was just so good. I came across beers that were tolerable, but I hoped they would improve.

Flash forward to the Summer Beereviews Tour 2015 (I just titled it that), and we gave Unknown another chance. Matt and I talked to the charming Elizabeth, who seems to run the show. She greeted us warmly and liked the idea of our project. She joined us for a beer when she got off her shift and proceeded to tell us about how Brad had sent a letter shortly before their year anniversary and it confirmed what I'd been thinking. They were so thrilled to get the facility open and brewing that they didn't perfect their recipes before they distributed them. They let beers out that weren't top shelf. But he goes on to say that they'd spent some time readjusting and he encouraged everyone who'd been dissatisfied in the past to come back and try the new recipes.

They've hyperfocused on making their beers good. And it has paid off. They carry a life-changing IPA called Over the Edge. It was among the first IPAs that I genuinely liked. And the No Shame Ginger Wheat is a great balance of ginger flavor with a fine wheat ale. They also carry the inherently drinkable Pregame Session Ale.

But, with an ideology like theirs, they are always experimenting. They release limited editions of crazy beers all the time like "La Jordana del Escorpion en Fuego Hacia la Casa del Chupacabra Muerto," or the beer brewed with food-grade scorpions. They also took a note from Arnold Palmer when brewing Hospitali-Tea, which is made with sweet tea.

I'm going to echo Brad's sentiment and strongly urge you to let them wow you if you were previously underwhelmed by their brews. And if you've never sampled their wares, there's no time like the present to step into the Unknown.

Local Brewery: Free Range Brewing

It's time to spotlight another local brewery and this time, it's brand new to the game Free Range Brewing.

Free Range opened within the last couple of months, after a long and arduous process to acquire the necessary materials, approvals, and permits, chronicled here by Creative Loafing's Jeff Hahne. The article goes fairly in depth about just how difficult it is to open a brewery, between laws that make the potential owners jump through hoops and inspections that contradict approved proposals. Chris Goulet, President of Birdsong Brewing (who we wrote about here) weighed in on some of the problems he faced when they were moving into the new facility. The article really made it clear that beer making is no easy task, and it definitely gave me a greater appreciation for the breweries that are up and operating in town and made me want to support them.

When we visited Free Range, they had a wide variety of beers. They offered them in small glasses and half pints, with only a few available in a pint. We had a flight while we were there and were particularly impressed by the oyster stout.

The taproom itself is in an old warehouse on N. Davidson, also home to Time Out Youth and Different Roads Home. It has a lot of natural light and an area where kids can play with games and puzzles, while their parents relax. On a Saturday afternoon, the place was fairly full of families. The kids were having a great time, and they remained fairly quiet. The taproom has ample seating at both the bar and at booth-styled tables along the wall. The chairs are upcycled school bus seats.

We had a chance to speak with Jeff Alexander, one of the founders of the brewery (the other is his brother, Jason). They seem to have a wild imagination and I look forward to what will come from them in the future.

Free Range does not yet have a website, I'm sure they're more focused on getting their brews right at this time, but you can find them on Facebook.

Local Brewery: NoDa Brewing

We continued our brew-tour by heading down the street to NoDa Brewing Company. Located in the happening area that's also home to Amelie's, NoDa opened in 2011. They opened just a few months before Birdsong in the building next door. NoDa's taproom is fairly small, they might be due for a nice upgrade sometime in the near future as they're always crowded when I'm there.

NoDa's backbone is in their experimentation with IPAs and pale ales. Hop, Drop, N Roll, an American-style IPA, is perhaps their flagship, as it won a 2014 World Beer Cup award. Among their other notables are Woody and Wilcox, named for local radio personalities, Jam Session Pale Ale, and Coco Loco coconut porter.

NoDa does small batch releases, calling their NoDables, and releasing them on Tuesdays. When we were there, they were getting ready to debut their Cucumber Watermelon Blonde Ale. This week's release is Charity Tuesday Green Tea Ale.

I would be completely remiss if I were to talk about NoDa Brewing without mentioning their delicious Gordgeous pumpkin ale. I am a fan of pumpkin beers, when the weather is appropriate, and NoDa's is absolutely the best in town!

NoDa's website has fantastic info like where to find their beers, what food trucks will be there on a given night, and what the week's NoDable release will be.

Local Brewery: Birdsong Brewing

A few weeks ago, Matt and I took a little tour of Charlotte's breweries. We hit a few familiar spots and some new ones. Charlotte is a community rich in beer culture, with more spots opening every day. We're going to profile the breweries, so that you, the casual beer drinker, can get a better understanding of what Charlotte has to offer you.

We started out at Birdsong Brewing. Birdsong has been around since 2011, but until this year their taproom was tiny and tucked behind another facility in the NoDa neighborhood. Their new taproom is open and welcoming with lots of seating. There's a great covered outdoor patio where you can enjoy a fine brew and some eats from a local food truck. Or you can just fill up on peanuts, which is my jam.

Birdsong is very committed to the community, using as many local ingredients as possible. They also give their spent grain to farms to use as feed, and compost the peanut shells.

Birdsong's beers have found their way into many local establishments, a fact chronicled by a chalkboard behind the bar. I'd say they're best known for the Jalapeno Pale Ale and the Lazy Bird Brown Ale. The Jalapeno is a refreshing pale ale, with the flavor of jalapenos. Most of the time, the beer does not carry the spice of jalapenos, but every once in a while, you might catch a fresh keg at the brewery and wind up with some kick in your glass.

I prefer the MexiCali Stout myself, which is a coffee stout with a hint of chili. The chili is extremely mild and just serves to bring out the flavor of the cinnamon and other spices. Birdsong claims MexiCali is a seasonal beer, available in Fall and Winter (but I've seen it other times of the year). And when MexiCali isn't available, I enjoy a nice Doin' Thyme Witbier. Doin' Thyme is a Belgian wheat beer with thyme, coriander, and lemon. It's a delightfully refreshing beer that definitely staves off the Carolina heat in the Spring and Summer, which is when it's available.

Birdsong does a fun event every Thursday, called THURSty THURSday where brewmaster Conor Robinson debuts a limited release small batch of something special.

For information on finding Birdsong beers or visiting their brewery, check out their website.

Beer Profile: Stan Cocheo

You may or may not recognize the name Stan Cocheo, but you've undoubtedly felt his influence. He hosts a radio show called Musical Conversations on Plaza Midwood Community Radio, which can be found here.

Beereviews teamed up with Stan to do what we thought was a first-of-its-kind radio/video collaboration. We talked about music and beer for the better part of an evening and recorded our beer talks for future episodes of Beereviews. Stay tuned for those.

Since Stan is an expert in his field, we thought you'd like to know a little more about his taste for beer.

Name: Stan Cocheo
Age: Yes.
First Beer: Miller High Life. Some of my favorite beers around the time I started drinking were Little King's.
Favorite Kind of Beer: I think we've covered that. Stouts and Porters. Well, Stout Porters.
The Last Beer I Drank Was: Guinness
When Not Drinking Beer, I Like: Chris, it's your fault. Jack Daniel's. Jack and Coke. Jack and Dr. Pepper, y'know because I'm a Pepper.
Don't Hand Me a Beer That's: Y'know, I was at a concert and I had a can of Guinness Draught in my hand. And I was enjoying that beer. And the beer promoter girl came up to a bucket of ice and some beer. She walked up and asked if I'd like a Bud Light. And I was like, "No. I've got this." Don't hand me a Bud Light.
I'll Drink Any Beer That's: Imported. *giggle* Scratch that. Imported, let's leave it at that. Except for craft. Craft or imported. Good.

An Ode to Shower Beer

I'd like to take some time to discuss a topic near and dear to my heart: the shower beer.

Maybe you've heard of shower beers, maybe you haven't. It's not a difficult concept to understand. Basically, you drink a beer while you shower. I'd even liken it to a glass of wine during a bubble bath/long soak.

Why would you want a shower beer, you might ask. I've compiled a list of reasons to answer your question, reader.
1. It is among the best ways to unwind after a long day.
2. It's a great way to recover from an exhausting activity; such as yard work, roller derby practice, or disposing of a body.
3. It feels like a big EFF YOU to society.
4. Peeing while drinking a beer in the shower IS the American Dream, I've decided.
5. It's the ultimate in multitasking, furthering you on the path to drunkenness and cleanliness. And drunkenness is next to Godliness, right? I need another beer.
6. Hell, it's the only way I want an ice cold beer in the dead of Winter.

So now that you've decided that having a shower beer is the thing to do (I mean, ALL the cool kids are doing it), you have to decide what kind of beer you'll enjoy in your shower.

I favour something cheap and domestic, usually. If you know me well, you'll know I'll try to keep my fridge stocked with some craft beers to enjoy as well as some cheap beers to get you there. My domestic of choice is, of course, PBR. So that's usually what I choose for my shower beer. I figure it's possible that it could get water or suds in it, so there's no use in diluting or 'seasoning' something that cost more than a dollar. HOWEVER I can see merit in choosing a craft beer that you'd like to enjoy. That would make the whole experience classier, because you're savouring your beer.


Did you hear that?
That was the sound of me finishing my beer.
It seems it's time for another.
So this is Rita, signing off.
Good night and happy drinking!

Beereviews Glossary

For our viewers at home, we'd like to define some terms that we use in our Beereviews series. Some of these are true to meaning beer terms, some are bastardised definitions of such terms, and some are just things we sort of cobbled together.

This list is a growing record, so if you hear something that strikes you as unfamiliar, let us know!

Lightning Round- The final part of our standard episodes. We put time on the clock and drink a mass market beer, saying everything that comes to mind.

Craft- Any beer that is not a mass market domestic or import.

ABV- Alcohol By Volume, a measurement of how much alcohol is present in a drink. It is defined by the amount of ethanol in 20mL of a solution. This is not the same as alcohol by weight or ABW.

ABW- Alcohol by weight, another measurement of alcohol in a beverage. But this time, it's the percentage of the total mass.

Mouthfeel- The sensation that a beer gives to your mouth/tongue. Some have a glycerin-like texture, fully coating the mouth.

Floral- A description given to hop-heavy beers. It can literally taste like biting a flower. Often hints of pine flavour also pervade. See also: hoppy

Hoppy- A description given to hop-heavy beers. The processes used to make pale ales and IPAs often rely on more hops or the beers being exposed to hops for longer meaning that the flavour is decidedly more prominent. It often lingers in the mouth.

IBUs- International Bittering Units, this is a number given to a beer after its measured with a spectrophotometer and through the use of solvent extraction. This is all fancy speak, but it means that beers with higher IBUs are more bitter and those with fewer are less bitter.

Session- Session beers are those with ABVs of less than 5% that one could enjoy several of in a drinking session, such as happy hour, without getting tanked.

Beer Profile: Matt

Name: Matt Stache

Age: 34
First Beer: Corona, I was on vacation with my band at the time, Anything But Stressed. We were staying at a beach house on the Gulf of Mexico. So we're sitting on the dock at the end of the day, I'd been 21 for a few weeks, and my friend Kendall insisted that I should have a beer. He offered me a Corona before realising we had no bottle opener. After running around in search of one, Kendall opened it with the top of a refrigerator-sized propane tank. It tasted just as I expected it to. I didn't manage to finish, but it was a great first exposure to beer.
Favorite Kind of Beer: Hmm...I still consider myself a mass market lager drinker, but I've begun to enjoy Pale Ales and IPAs as of late.
The Last Beer I Drank Was: Pabst Blue Ribbon
When Not Drinking Beer, I Like: A well-crafted gin and tonic. Alternatively, a nice scotch on the rocks.
Don't Hand Me a Beer That's: Been poisoned by pretentiousness, I can take care of that myself.
I'll Drink Any Beer That's: Put in front of me, regardless of whose it is.

If you have questions, post on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/beereviews?fref=ts

Beer Profile: Rita

Hi, I'm one half of Beereviews with Rita and Matt and I'm here to let you know a little about what I like to drink.

Name: Rita, that's all you get!
Age: 24
First Beer: Busch Light, my father gave me a sip when I was 6 years old. It was awful. I didn't try beer again until many years later, when I drank either a Bud Heavy or a Miller High Life. On my 21st birthday, a friend bought me a White Zombie and when I didn't care for it, she replaced it with a Hell or High Watermelon. First beer I legit ordered at a bar was a Blue Moon.
Favorite Kind of Beer: See, now here's where I struggle. I used to love wheat beers and witbiers, but I've had several recently I didn't care for. So now I'm kind of torn. I like some wheat beers, but I also like a lot of stouts and porters. I'll drink lagers and pilsners. I generally don't love IPAs, but I'm working on it.
The Last Beer I Drank Was: Guinness Blonde American Lager, it was what was in my fridge.
When Not Drinking Beer, I Like: A good, strong, fresh-squeezed margarita.
Don't Hand Me a Beer That's: Warm.
I'll Drink Any Beer That's: Free.

That's all I got for now. If you have questions, post on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/beereviews?fref=ts