What are you drinking right now?

[thesummerqueen]

It's really not about being hipster - there's not a lot of pretentiousness, except in that if you are there, you better not be buying Miller/Bud/Coors/etc. Plenty of people buy PBR because it's cheap and we're poor, but beer prices aren't that bad here, and they make a bunch of reasonably priced high-gravity beers that will get you fuckin' LIT.

Remember, I'm a whiskey/whisky drinker. 3 beers down here will often make it impossible for me to drive, depending on what I order. I remember someone on the forums claiming that all American beers were watered down - no they are not. First of all, it's not limited to North Carolina - there are many amazing craft breweries all over the country which have national distribution. However, I live here, so I'm partial to and tend to seek out local stuff in order to support my state. That said, you want something chewier than Guinness? We can basically give you bread in a glass. You want enough hops to strip the enamel off your teeth? Have you ever had a Dogfishhead 90 or 120 minute IPA?

Heist brewery here makes a chocolate stout that backwashes into chili pepper. Triple C makes a porter they call "Up All Night" and then they take a batch of it and age it in bourbon barrels. Except once they put a small batch in a barrel that had held both Canadian whiskey and maple syrup at various points in its life. I was there for the uncasking, and I was singing O Canada afterwards with no shame. Birdsong makes a Jalapeno Pale ale - light and sparkling and cool, until you get a pinch at the end. Little Sugar Creek has a handful of very refreshing 'light' beers - things that are usually a little too wheat for my taste but their Saison is the best post-bike-ride beer. Wooden Robot and Free Range both have had amazing sours in the last year. Old Mecklenburg is basically a German pub - their Copper is phenom, and I don't go much for German beers.

These are just the places I attend regularly - and that's not even counting the tasting/growler houses I go to which feature many, many other North Carolina or US beers.

Oh, and I just went to Cabarrus Brewing the other night to listen to a Gaelic music concert and did a flight with my friend - their Amber and their Pale were fucking on point, as was their vanilla porter.

We're spoiled for choice here, just in the Charlotte Metro area. You can't throw a stone without hitting a bar/pub that not only sells local GOOD beer, but also sells good food. We don't fuck around. A lot of NC may be NASCAR-watching, but Charlotte cares about other shit too. We're the reason HB2 was created, after all. Terrible of us - trying to protect transfolk.