Moving to Charlotte. Beer Tips?

Check out Heist if like IPAs.

 

You're in for a treat. Salud is the go to beer shop. Excellent selection, great tap selection, and they have a restaurant right next door which was recently featured on the Food Network. Also, they are opening a brewery called Salud Cerveceria soon. Heist is my personal favorite brewery in Charlotte. They make some of the best IPAs in the state and they also have good food. They have a diverse rotating tap list. They were also recently featured on Food Network. I've never been to Wooden Robot, but I hear great things. I think NoDa and Birdsong are also staples and must visits in Charlotte. I hope you enjoy your stay!

 

Congrats, the beer scene here is fantastic and I'd argue offers a good to world class version of just about any style you could ask for. Yes, better than Asheville, I'd absolutely argue. (this would actually be a fun debate).

 

Having just got back from Asheville I would agree with you Charlotte definitely is better

 

Heist, wooden robot, and high branch should be your first stops. Best breweries in the area hands down

 

Charlotte's got a solid beer scene. A little more spread out than Asheville, but very manageable with some Ubering involved. If you're going to be there for the entire summer, I recommend you just go visit them all. Even the "lesser hyped" breweries still make a hit every now and then.

Depending on where you'll be staying in Charlotte, it might only take between 2 and 2/12 hours to get over to Asheville. Easy for a Saturday get-away. Also very do-able to swing out to the Triangle for Bond Bros/Lynnwood/Trophy/etc or Haw River near the Piedmont Triad.

 

Yes, Asheville is a 2 hour drive away.

 

When you find me a place where I can walk to Burial, Green Man, Funkatorium, Wicked Weed, and Hi wire ( not even including Catawba, Twin Leaf, Bhramari and Asheville Brewing company) quality spots and never WALKING more than 5 minutes in Charlotte let me know.
Charlotte has made great strides with some great breweries but it still has a ways to go. Shit when I lived there 15 years ago there was hardly anything craft wise.

 

Like some others have said, visit them all and make you own decisions. There aren't really any "bad" ones, just ones that might not be (or brew) your style. I have my favorites, and sometime it isn't about the beer, it could be the vibe, the patio, the lax dog rules, etc. Some of your favorite beers might come your least favorite place to visit (looking at you Wooden Robot...expand already). You will have plenty of time if you be here for the summer. No, we aren't Asheville and there is nothing wrong with that.

If you have specific questions, hit me or one of the other CLT BA's up. Lived here for almost 20 years now (holy crap...I'm getting old).

 

I'll echo what others have said with a few couple personal favorite recommendations: OMB's outdoor space on a nice day can't be beat for relaxing and people watching, and the food and beer are top notch as well (again, only German styles, which they do incredibly well), and they are a short walk/drive/Uber from several other breweries as well. Brawley's Beverage, Carolina Beer Temple, and Salud are my go-to bottle shops/bars as they always have a good and diverse selection of local/NC and national breweries on tap and in package. The folks that run them and work there are also very friendly and knowledgeable and can help point you in the direction of whatever you're looking for.

Another great thing about Charlotte is its relatively central position to some other fun beer cities, so if your schedule and whatever else permits you can easily take a day or two and visit Asheville, Charleston, Raleigh etc.

My last piece of advice since you'll be here for a while and don't need to cram everything in a couple days is to visit all the breweries and bars and bottle shops and try all the beers you can and make your own decisions about them. This includes Hop Drop and Roll, which if it was truly as horrible as some people here say you'd think it's rating would have tanked by now, but it's still at a 94 so....

 

Charlotte has come a long way in the last 15 years. Back then Charlotte was just waking up from Johnson Beer Co., maniac Mellow Mushrooms, and finding the visionary M. Brawley really urging the beer scene along. Charlotte is now a good beer city for sure. Any comparison to Asheville is useless. Asheville is a fun walking place, and it has genuine character; Charlotte is huge modern sprawl, with areas of great charm, nice breweries, restaurants, and people. When I go to Asheville I don't want to leave. Can't say the same for Charlotte. But I still like Charlotte.

 

Guys Charlotte is a moderate-sized city with all the challenges a city of that size includes. Asheville is more of a large town in the mountains. They are apples and oranges.

 

Legion Brewing.






That is all.

 

Like @mosiTatupu said, they're very very different cities. You essentially have one rundown wharehouse district (South Slope) that was revitalized and all the breweries flocked there. Charlotte is many times the size of Asheville with many old warehouse districts, and actually has a massive resident population, whereas most of the people in Asheville at any given time are tourists (under 100k resident to 8 million'ish tourists per year). That said, Charlotte has it's areas where you can walk/uber/light rail between multiple great breweries...my advice would be to explore them that way. For instance, hop on the light rail one day and hit Wooden Robot, Unknown ,Sycamore, Triple C, and possibly mix in Good Bottle and Craft if you want a bottle shop with a great tap list. That's 6 great places all an easy walk and using the train. Several other examples like that including the NoDa area, the OMB/Sycamore area, and others. Charlotte is a pretty freaking awesome beer town!! Cheers

 

Charlotte is great. This thread is about Charlotte beer. I spend my time at Salud, Heist, Birdsong, Legion, Common Market, Free Range, NoDa, Pint Central, Ass Clown, Craft, Triple C and Wooden Robot. I live near downtown in Plaza-Midwood so that has a lot to do with it.