Have a wedding in Carolina Beach at the end of this month. Will be coming thru NC on I-74 then catching I-40 near Winston Salem and taking it all the way there almost. Are there any good bottle shops or breweries along the way that are not far off the highway? Would love to take some Burial, Heist, Wicked Wedd, etc to the beach with me. Thank you
You might get lucky and find Burial (assuming you want IPAs) in bottle shops on the way down I40, depending on your timing. Heist you will need to detour a couple hours or so out of your way to get, brewery only in charlotte. Wicked Weed will likely be distributed to Ohio before long, so I would not worry about that if I were you. Your best bet is Wilmington Brewing Company, they just started canning and I hear good things. They are litteraly on your way there.
Yeah, unless you have a hookup for a trade, you'll need to make a detour to Charlotte to get some Heist. It'll add about an hour and a half to your travel time to go through CLT, and 74 from CLT to the beach isn't a very fun ride (lots of little towns to make you slow down, no good places to stop for beer). I recommend finding somebody in NC to meet you for an in-person trade at the beach or along I-40 if you're really wanting to snag some Heist stuff. They don't have regular can releases and crowler availability varies from week to week. Looks like they're filling crowlers of Citraquench'l right now, but that may change. Also of note, Heist has a collab DIPA with High Branch (just north of CLT, has been killin' it recently) coming out later this month that should be pretty swell. If you do consider making a stop by Heist, be sure to check their Facebook page as they'll update whenever they schedule can releases or put new beers on tap. Going down on I-40 there are a couple of good places to stop in each of the cities (Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Durham, Raleigh). The beer availability will vary a little bit from city to city, but about all of the good places all get the same kinds of stuff from the bigger brewers in the state. There are lots of good bottleshops nowadays, so it is probably easier to just pick where/when you think you'll want to stop and hit up one in that city. You can find Wicked Weed stuff pretty much everywhere nowadays (even the good grocery stores), but be sure to check the dates if you're looking for Pernicious and/or Freak. Their sours and limited release stuff will require you to go to a bottleshop, though. Most good beer stores keep a healthy stock of WW stuff... unless, of course, that bottleshop has sworn them off altogether... Burial is more limited to bottleshops. They have pretty good distribution when they make drops, but their cans don't always sit around very long. Don't know if their Skillet Donut Stout is hitting distro this month, but that's my favorite (non aged) coffee stout and you won't want to miss it. If you decide to stop in Winston-Salem, Juggheads should be your destination. They fill growlers and always have a dynamite all-NC taplist. In Greensboro, Bestway is the default answer, but Gate City Growlers or Beer Co might be better for you if you're looking to Mix-N-Match. There's a couple of recent threads about Wilmington that'll get you up to speed on the key places to hit up for "ILM Beer."
We're going to be stopping and staying the night in Chapel Hill. I've read that Beer Study and Sam's Bottle Shop are the places to go in the area. Can anyone vouch or add more info?
Those are definitely a couple of the best places on the Chapel Hill side of the Triangle. Sam's Quik Stop has some of the best selection in the state.
Beer Study is a MUST. Actually the entire Graham St block is fun. Do yourself a favor and eat at Al's Burger Shack next to Beer Study. Baxter Arcade is dope for old school video games and pinball. Also, Bottle Revolution (Chapel Hill) I think opened recently. Durham - Sam's Bottle Shop (SW Durham) has a great tap list and arguably the best bottle selection in the Raleigh/Durham. In Durham, Sam's Quik Shop (Duke/Downtown) is a craft beer icon around these parts. Seems like their tap list is ALWAYS solid but lately the bottle selection has been lacking. Also, if you're in Carolina Beach and nobody's mentioned it yet but Wilmington Brewery and New Anthem are making some of the best NE IPA/DIPA's in the state so you may want to put those places on your list of breweries to check out. Bottle Shop rec would be Fermentals.
If you can't find what you're looking for in the Triangle, just hit up Candy's Exxon which you will drive past on your way to Carolina Beach, its just about 10 minutes before you hit the bridge on the right. Awesome selection, and as mentioned below- the IPAs these guys are pumping out are on fantastic. On par with (some IPAs are better than Burial in my opinion), but I'm slightly biased since I live here, but its up for you to decide- just saying I wouldn't spend all your beer money in Chapel Hill Feel free to DM with any questions.
