Gate City Growlers

 

I stop by every time I come through town. One of the best places in town to get a great draft beer and shop for beer. Really friendly staff, excellent selection 10 or 12 taps with a great variety and wonderful beers. Lots of room for sitting down and having a pint stock is well rotated they also have crowlers and growlers to go.

 

Gate City Growlers is everything that I look for in a bottle shop: a great selection of beer, well-curated by people who are passionate about good beer and are willing to personally travel NC to bring the best of it to their customers, even beer that gets minimal (or no) distribution. With 20 taps, there is plenty of kegged beer to be had; when I visited, the tap selection was diverse and impressive, and featured beer from top-shelf brewers like Prairie Artisan Ales, Mikkeller, Grimm, Burial, and Wooden Robot. And unlike some places, they are happy to fill outside growlers. The packaged beer selection is great as well, with an appropriate focus on NC beer but no skimping on great beer from outside NC (and outside the US). A couple of coolers provide cold beer. Like any proper bottle shop, mix-a-six is the method to the madness.

On a Friday night, the modest bar (and the rest of the store) was filled by a diverse crowd drawn together by their love of good beer. It is obvious that this is a popular place, as a lot of folks seemed to be regulars.

What separates a good bottle shop from a great bottle shop is the staff, and the folks at Gate City Growlers are ace. Helpful, knowledgeable and friendly- you couldn't ask for better service. If I lived in Greensboro, this would be my bottle shop.

 

Really like this place... for it's size it had a really nice selection of bottles.

The staff was really knowledgeable about both NC beer and and craft beer in general. A few restaurants in the same shopping center if you're wanting to bring some food to the bar.

When I visited they had a really solid selection of things on tap... I'd guess 1/3 to 1/2 were things that don't get bottled and / or don't see much distribution. I stayed a lot longer than I initially planned due to what was available on tap.

Only negative for me is that it's about an hour away, so I'll very rarely get a chance to visit.

The vibe was half bottle shop half beer bar and was pretty quiet when I stopped by early on a Friday evening. A handful of customers, mostly in the millennial generation, were there with only a couple of folks actually having beers while the others were just bottle shopping. After numerous visits, this place has become my favorite local spot to go out and grab a beer.

Beers were well poured with a proper amount of head (from what I could see, I just grabbed a couple bottles/cans). Beers were served in proper glassware and at the proper temperature.

Service was friendly and seemed knowledgeable but as I did not really have any questions (and I was there with my wife who is not really a beer person on my way to dinner) and didn't spend any time chatting with the employees. On subsequent visits, I have learned that the staff is quite knowledgeable and quite happy to talk beer with you - once they know you, they are quick to let you know when something you will like is available.

Draft selections were quite nice, a lot of stuff that is not distributed so the owners/employees must be going and picking up kegs from the breweries themselves. Good selection of bottles/cans and a lot that you do not see at other shops in town.

 

 

 

With a great selection of beer on tap, and in bottles/cans, Gate City Growlers is a perfect addition to Greensboro and surrounding areas. With the craft beer scene exploding, especially in North Carolina, with new breweries opening all of the time, Gate City Growlers is filling a major void in one of NC's biggest markets. They have 20 taps, mostly devoted to sharing with people what NC breweries have to offer; and they keep some beers on tap that are super hard to find, unless you go directly to the breweries. As a big sour/wild beer fan, I love that they opened up with D9's Viking Fraoch, and Wicked Weed's Saison V on draft. Regardless of your palate, with 20 taps and a huge variety of styles, there's definitely a beer(or several,) for everyone's taste! And every beer on tap is available for a growler fill, as well. As far as bottles/cans, Gate City has an awesome selection, with some rare beers that are pretty tough to find, along with delicious staple beers from top craft breweries, from all over the country. Being a huge IPA fan, I was super impressed with their vast selection of IPAs. They're also asking their customers what they would like to see stocked, which I think is super cool. If you live in, or around Greensboro, or are just visiting or passing through, I HIGHLY recommend stopping by Gate City Growlers, for a pint, a growler fill, or to do some shopping for some great craft beer! Cheers!

Great growler shop! Something Greensboro needed with the growing beer seen and several new breweries coming on line this year. They have a 20 tap station with a heavy focus on NC breweries. Most beers on tap were brewery direct beers and hard to come by unless you hit the brewery yourself. Great variety on tap. A beer for every taste bud. The bottle selection is around 250 with plenty of room for growth. They are asking their neighborhood what they want to see stocked which is a good way to start. I highly suggest checking them out.