The Glass Jug Beer Lab

A brewery and beer store. BTW, there also a home brew place in the same shopping center.
Average to good beer. Great bottle shop. Good vibe. An average bar with an inside atrium/sitting area to drink as well and an outside picnic area. If its cold the inside area will get crowded. Both glass jug beers and guest taps about 50/50. Bottle shop is small but extensive. You’ll find something you’ll want at the bar shop and most likely never had. No food but you can bring it in. Great selection when you consider the guest taps. Staff is helpful and friendly.

Incredible selection from the store and you can relax at the bar to enjoy an ever changing selection from taps. I've even been able to get notifications if a particular beer has become available.

A bottle shop/growler fill shop/bar that recently added a brewery. When you first enter there is a fairly large bar to the right, a couple of small tables straight ahead and a few aisles of shelves/coolers in the back. The beers available to take away are organized by styles. There are a couple of TVs that were showing soccer with no volume and enjoyable music playing at a reasonable volume.

Beers were well poured into proper glassware at a reasonable temperature and with a decent amount of head.

Service was friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable - even offering some cautions on a couple of the beers (like don't miss this one if you like style XXX since we are not likely to be able to get another keg of it, etc.

The store portion has a really nice selection of NC breweries as well as a lot of harder to find breweries as well. Good selection across the styles and a decent amount of beer available chilled as well. All beer was available in singles. The draft list had a decent representation of styles and featured a number of NC breweries that are harder to find (do not distribute or self-distribute).

This is a bottle shop, bar, and brewery all in one. They have a good selection in their bottle shop. Quite a few beers on tap. They also have begun brewing their own. They had an Irish stout regular and nitro on tap when I was there. Decent seating. Good place to stop in Durham.

 

 

Great bottleshop. Staff was super friendly and helpful. Katy made great recommendations on Local beers. Will be stopping again when I am in town.

Nice selection but a hole in the wall. Little to no atmosphere at all.

 

The Glass Jug has rapidly become the go to place for craft beer in south Durham / west RTP.

Vibe: It is located in a strip mall, which, isn't ideal, but location wise it great, conveniently located off of NC 55 a between US 40 and N C147. Parking is never an issue and it is in an area I generally consider safe (which isn't always a given in Durham). Outside there is limited seating with a view of the parking lot, but hey, it’s about the company and the beer. Inside there’s a few tables with chairs that are too small for my frame. Luckily, the stools at the bar are plentiful and that’s where I want to be anyway. The Glass Jug is always spotlessly clean. The staff is very friendly, most have their serving cicerone so they are also knowledgeable about the offerings.

Quality: You can rate is in any number of ways, but I’m going to focus on the growler fills first. Tremendous attention to detail in the growler filling, and they use the counter pressure fill so the growlers keep as well as can be expected. As I mentioned above, they are cicerones so the quality is really top notch, even down to the little details, like wetting the glass, proper glass, etc. A+

Service: It can get busy and sometimes they don’t have enough people there but that’s a sign of their success. I am a bit of a regular there, so I have the privilege of grabbing attention when I need it. This is not to say they aren’t friendly to everyone, they are. The owners, Kate and Chris, set the tone for the rest of the staff with their professionalism and service orientation. I’ve never had poor service there.

Selection: There is a wide selection of local, domestic and imported craft beers, some refrigerated to go and some without a corking fee (which I appreciate). Space is a constraint. They do also offer some snacks and there are nearby eateries so the lack of a kitchen isn’t an issue, at least for me. People often bring in take out. The owners have some strong personal connections to the NC craft scene and that results in some rare local beers that other places simply do not get. That also tends to be their focus so they are going to occasionally miss out on the rare national allocations.

Overall: It’s a great place and I’m happy that they opened in my stomping grounds.

 

 

A nice, new bottle shop with both a great selection of bottles and a solid tap lineup. Comfortable atmosphere and friendly, knowledgeable service. It's well worth a visit!