Fortnight Brewing Company

Great place to spend an afternoon/evening! Nice outdoor area during nice weather and dog-friendly!

Fortnight is a lot of fun.
Looks like a huge English Pub inside, a small amount of outdoor seating and nearby parking.
Fortnight specializes in UK type ales, so is this a good chance to have an Porter, a Stout, or an ESB or a bitter.
Food trucks.
Well worth checking out if you are in The Cary NC area.

 

 

Friendly service, good beer, great tour, and a British accent in NC. Love it.

It is a small establishment with a whole lot of character. This brewery brings a new element to beer in America. The people here have taken some old english recipes that are hundreds of years old and brought them back to life. Some they have kept the same and some they have made their own. They take great pride in teaching you their brewing process as wells as walking through the whole facility and showing you every step they take to creating their beer. The one thing that stood out to me was that they have beer on cask. This is something that I had not encountered before and I have to say it was amazing. I highly recommend visiting this brewery and make sure you try the beer on cask!

I stopped into Fortnight with my wife, sister-in-law, and the latter’s boyfriend, after a family excursion for lunch in Raleigh. We had some time to kill before a Duke basketball game, and figured trying out a new local brewery was a great idea.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news almost as much as I hate being negative about a local watering hole, but I just didn’t like their beer at all. I appreciate the effort they’re making into traditional English ales, hand pumped at the bar and everything, but none of it delighted my palette in the least. The only thing I found decently drinkable was the IPA, probably because hops are notorious for covering up flavor flaws.

The three of us started up a game of Cards Against Humanity, and I had every intention of ordering a pint after my wife and I split a sampler. But after getting through the flight, we just decided to quit and head home, because none of the beers were really worth ordering a pint of.

Perhaps their lines were off or they hit a rough spell in their brewing, because I swear I’ve had them at festivals before and didn’t find their ware off-putting. But that day, it was near undrinkable. And it’s a shame because their location is pretty cool – a giant space with a big bar, comfy couches, a few chairs, and a lot of board games for people to play.

Perhaps I'll try again later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally made it by for a visit to the tap room. They're not far from my house so it was long overdue.

The tap room is nice. It's a good sized space with a bar area, tables, couches and plenty of standing room. It had a decent crowd and a local feel. The brewing facility, which is visible from the tap room, is very impressive. The equipment is new, clean and high quality. They must have spent a fortune and must have some serious plans for growth and distribution.

They brew English style ales and offered a blond, English ale, ESB and porter. They were all good but not remarkable. The English ale actually had an odd coffee taste to it. I preferred the porter the most. I think they'd appeal to the masses because the flavors are pretty mainstream but if you truly love the mix of complexity and simplicity in an authentic English ale, they still have some work to do.

I'm hopeful they'll continue to grow and evolve. They have a great facility and a good location. They could do a lot with it.