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.