Driving from Philly to Raleigh

Your best bet is to hit a bottle shop in Raleigh. If you will be near downtown I recommend Tasty Beverage or Bottle Revolution on Lake Boone. Both offer singles of NC beers. If you are looking for something more on the way to Walnut Creek I would stop at Wine and Beer 101 in Wake Forest or Greenway Beer and Wine on Louiaburg Rd. Neither would be much out of your way coming from Richmond (assuming you will take I85). As for beers, look for IPAs from Brewery Bhavana or Southern Pines (specifically their new Dance of the Absurd). If you are lucky you will see IPAs from Wilmington Brewery on the shelf and if REALLY lucky New Anthem. Definately try those if you see them!

As for BBQ, the best known in the area is The Pit in downtown, but I think it is overrated. I prefer Big Al's near where I live, but there are probably bigger BBQ connesieurs then I am who could give better recommendations.

 

Oh, and especially keep an eye out for Burial IPAs, don't know how I left that off the list but they are some of the best in the state and easy to find!

 

Bhavana is releasing cans of Pulp this week.

 

Phish show is a couple weeks away, so it's hard to say what will be around. As previously mentioned though, Bhavana is you're best bet for a brewery visit along with Trophy (who is hit and miss for many, but they have been putting out a lot of juicy IPAs this year). Casita releases cans every few weeks - sometimes hazy, sometimes not - you can find their cans in the many, many Raleigh/Durham bottle shops. Wilmington and New Anthem cans will be hard to come by, but some shops get a few cases every once in a while. Fresh Burial Hawkbill is usually widely available.

In addition to the shops mentioned, I highly recommend Ridgewood (especially for drafts - they've had Heist IPAs on recently) and State of Beer. Friendly helpful people at all of these places that should be able to guide you in the right direction.

 

Check out Ridgewood’s taplist in the days leading up to the show and see what they have and what they’re doing growler fills of. If Heist stuff is available anywhere then it will likely be there. They’ll also usually have whatever the newest/best thing available is from Burial and Bhavana, which are the other two you want to look for.

New Anthem is the one that you’d have to go elsewhere for, but they’ll probably be tough to find for take away unless you set up a trade.

I’m going to the show as well, will be glad to update the thread as it gets closer.

 

Then of course in RVA you've got several great hazy ipa options as well - Veil, Triple Crossing, Answer, Final Gravity.

 

If you come down 85 out of Richmond, Take Highway 1 near Henderson. Johnson Family Barbeque is not far off of Hwy 98. It is a hole in the wall but the Barbeque is fantastic. You are about 45-50 minutes from the concert. Also Ridgewood does have great beers on draft but the bottles are few. Tasty or State of Beer downtown are the better bottle shops. I also like Pelagic downtown but they all should have the same stuff on the shelf.

 

Those other shops typically won't have anything in terms of hazy ipa's in bottles or cans that Ridgewood doesn't also have (and usually cold as well). Now if you're looking for random sour or saison bottles like Zebulon and Fonta Flora then yeah.

 

I recommended Tasty and Bottle Revolution over the others mostly because they offer singles and you do not have to commit to a 4pk. If OP is looking to try a variety without bringing cases of beer back home, that might be an advantage for him.

 

True, I mean I'd recommend hitting multiple if you have the time either way. I go to Bottle Rev a lot for singles of things I just want to try. The only issue there is it usually won't be cold, so just be sure to get the stuff early enough to put it on ice for a while if you're trying to drink it that day.

 

when i visited my sister outside of Raleigh i hit Bottle Mixx and thought it was great. i think they might even hold beers for you if you give them a call. i also hit Tasty which had a good selection but a lot of old stuff; cool location though.

http://www.bottlemixx.com/new-arrivals/

 

If you shop at Bottle Mixx be sure to check dates. I've seen a lot of old or out of date product there.

 

^^This all all you need to know for RVA. Cans at Veil last all week and often carry over from the previous week these days. The Answer and Final Gravity do Crowlers to-go and depending on what's available from Triple Crossing and if it's a release week they may have cans but also do Crowlers / Growlers. If you may be trying to hit up some bottle shops as you pass through (I'm not too familiar with locations of the best ones in RVA) but the best out of town local haze cans that show up pretty regularly is Commonwealth Brewing out of Va Beach.

Best BBQ is Richmond is going to be ZZQ. They are located in Scott's Addition not too far from Veil.

 

Bottle Rev had New Anthem cans as of yesterday and has Heist Citraquench and Burial Prismatic Visions on tap as of today. How much of that will last until tomorrow I don't know.

Ridgewood has Heist Blurred is the Word on for growlers as of today. Not sure how long that will last, but if I think they have some other Heist and Burial stuff to go on soon.

I'd say between those two you should have some good hazy ipa options both on draft and to go. Both should have Burial cans like Hawkbill. They're also close to each other and not far off the highway. They also both have really up to date taplists online if you want to look tomorrow. Hope you get some good stuff and enjoy the show!

 

Hey @CavemanRamblin. Is Heist self-distributing in the Triangle or are the shops picking it up?

 

Picking it up I believe.

 

If you find yourself downtown, go to Tasty Beverage.