NODA Hop Cakes

Hop cakes is released yearly and come out in February

 

The next seasonal to be on the lookout for is Hoppy Holidays.
In my opinion, the best beer NoDa has to offer.

 

Hoppy Holidays is sooooooooo good!

 

They have yet to announce they are doing hoppy holidays again. I'm for pretty sure with the production brewery open now they will.

 

I love me some Hoppy Holidays! Hope they do that again!

 

I don't know if it's because they're moving production over to the new brewery, but NoDa stuff has been more scarce the past month or so. Hop Drop n Roll especially. Haven't really seen it on draft anywhere and cans seem pretty limited.

 

Yes, this is the reason. I also heard they had a issue with hdr and had to dump a batch or two. The production brewery is still not officially brewing yet as of a few weeks ago. The taproom is open but they are still trying to dial everything in on the new system.

 

They should to do an Imperial Stout version of this beer.

 

Huh? How do you make a DIPA an imperial stout?

 

I think he was referring to a maple syrup imp stout.

 

As of yesterday there is still no Hop Drop and Roll to be had. A sign posted in my Charlotte go to beer store from NoDa cites production problems and activity on the new production facility.

Word of mouth / rumor (which I never take stock in) says they had an infection issue and drained a ton of beer.

None the less HD&R has been major scarce for a while now and I hope they get it back together soon.

 

Here's hoping they dial it back in to where it was 2 years ago when it was memorable.

 

There had been issues with it for months and it wasn't infection. At first it seemed to only be the cans that had issues, but the last few times I had it on draft it was terrible. It tasted super oxidized, like a wet paper bag.

I actually had the same issue with Hop Cakes cans. They tasted decent at first, but the last few I had (which were only a month old at the time) had that oxidized character to them.

I'm glad they have stopped producing it until they figure out what is causing the issue. If they keep releasing bad beer, they are going to tarnish their reputation... if they haven't already.

Seems like Triple C's 3C IPA is either selling a lot more or they've found a sweet spot on the amount they produce. The cans I've seen around town are a lot fresher than they used to be, so I've been buying that as my local go to beer.

 

There are breweries literally rising up from the ground now. Fear not. I wish no bad on NoDa, but we are blessed with a plethora of truly excellent local, regional, national, and international beers. I care more about consumers than producers, and always will.

 

This^^
Unknown is doing some great things. 1.5ish is criminally slept on, Teleporter is one of the best beers in charlotte, and the Day of the Dead series gets its second installment tomorrow.

 

I like Teleporter, but that is the first positive review of the 1.5 I've encountered.

 

1.5 is one of the most complex sours i've had. it's not like a lot of the easy drinking fruited stuff that a lot of AWA chasers love (nothing wrong with that, i like those too), but to my palate it's smoky and sour and delicious and as it warms you really get the strawberry and the vanilla. I just like that unknown is willing to take risks (rise against clowns, 99 scorpions, the heart that bleeds purple, garage warrior). They're not just churning out the same 4 beers like NoDa.
Also much love to Triple C for similar reasons!

 

Fresh Hop Drop was delivered yesterday (via Good Bottle Twitter post).

And I had a good LOL at the folks that think Noda is just 4 beers. Yes they can 4 core beers year round. They also release a new beer every week for the past 4 years, regular seasonals that they can (hop cakes, gordous, hoppy holidays, nodajito), other seasonals that are regular, many once a year brews, collaborations, etc. They also plan to release more year rounds and plan a special once a month canning. There is typically 10 beers on tap in the tap room.

No they don't bottle and release special beers aged on moon rocks and blended with unicorn tears so that obviously means they are boring and not doing anything "cool".