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Not a big fan of the brewery but love the beer. The layout of brewery operations integrated into the tap room was cool but the DJ was playing club music too loud for a Friday at 6:30……or maybe we are just too old. Our 2nd german-inspired brewery for the day was a bonus as was this being the first time we did 5 breweries in one day (and can still blog about it). A good bit of their beers are acutally brewed in Hannover using the purity laws and shipped here to CLT. We anxiously ordered up a flight of Gilde Pilsener, The Miner, Red Rooster and Dark Hen. It don’t get no better than this. Guten Tag!

At brewery #4 for the day, things usually start to get crazy. In the past, the 4th brewery meant the 4th pint but now that we have switched over to flights, the 4th brewery isn’t so wacky since 4 flights only equals about 2 pints each. We ordered up a round of beers that included the Dolly, Edmund, Cheech and the Arthur. We sat outside on a picnic table since record-high temps seemed to be subsiding and sipped on the blonde ale to beat the heat. The pale ale was not as hoppy as expected and the irish stout on nitro was smooth and creamy but the double IPA made us say “sheesh” when we drank it and tasted the hint of “dank”.

We were told this is one of the original breweries in Charlotte and its fitting that they are a German-inspired brewery: the birthplace of beer. We sampled the Copper Altbier, Captain Jack, Munzler’s and Hornets Nest while also sampling their sausages. The German pils and Vienna lager paired well with the brat and the hefe went well with the jalapeno & cheddar brat. The altbier was a perfect match with the frankferter & mustard.

We are off to a good start on this hot, Friday afternoon. On the southside, you can’t swing a cat by the tail without hitting a brewery! Our 2nd stop brought us across the street from a friend Chris’ company, DPR Construction. What a place to have an office. This flight kept us in our box except for the Belgian Dubble – it was truly easy-drinking, dark & mysterious and full of character. The White Ale and Culture Pils were mild & crisp with very little flavor after tastimg the dubble. The Pale Ale fell somewhere in between and helped us transition from the lights to the dark.

Named after it’s map location in the Queen City, this brewery is another one of our favorite styles that is small & simple and brews right onsite in an old garage. We took flight with the Participation Award, Rhymes With Kolsch, Rose Tatoo and Jawa Juice. The blonde and kolsch were a little bitter but were cool and refreshing on this record-high 96 degree Friday afternoon. The red was our favorite and we left the milkshake for last so as not to ruin our tastebuds with the orange juice-gone-bad flavor.

This is technically our third stop for the day but the first one was a brewery we already blogged about 5 years ago (Ass Clown) and the 2nd one was closed (Eleven Lakes) for a private party. We were the only customers in the tap room so we got to chat a lot with the beer-tender who was originally from Chicago. He served us up a flight of Clacton ESB, Twain’s Amber Ale, Nebra pilsner and Kama IPA. The ESB was a nice touch since we don’t run across them too often and the IPA was surprizingly smooth with a very low IBU for easy drinking. The pils was good for cleansing the palate after a bite of the beer-cheese pretzel pieces but the best beer was the medium-bodied amber ale with a slight fruit aftertaste.

The last stop on our day-drinking day with the dogs brings us to a huge, mostly outdoor brewery with food trucks and a dog-friendly picknick table area. They don’t offer flights on the weekends which is sort of weird so we settled for a couple of pints of their Italian Pils and their Cinnamon Bun Latte blonde ale. The pils was typical for what was expected but the ale was Cinna-Bon in a beer. Really sweet and tough to drink a whole pint but would have been great as part of a flight.

Stop #3 for the day (not counting the dog bar) brings us to a hip little joint serving brews and food. We “flew” their Common Spark, Breakaway, Mariachi Static and RP-1. The common ale was quite the thrist quencher as was the mexican lager that had a nice hint of lime but a bit tart. The brown ale was full bodied and not bitter at all – probably one of the better browns we have had in a while. The hazy IPA was creamy with a hoppy flavor but not overbearing.

After a chaotic beer at the “dog bar” across the street, we slipped over here to do a flight and get a snack. Drinking on an empty stomach can end very badly. Our flight consisted on the Ethereal helles lager, the Mully’s pale ale, the Breakfast Ball stout and the Handsome Bugger hazy IPA. The lager and pale ale were nice warm-ups prior to our snacks arriving but the IPA paired very well with the pretzel and meatballs. The breakfast stout was a nice ending to everything before departing for the next brewery.

The start of another great day begins with not only a trip to a brewery but today we’ve brought along our dogs. CLT seems to be a dog-friendly city so we thought we would get the dogs out of the RV for the day and bring them along for some day-drinking. We started off with a S’mores blonde ale (on nitro – notice the thick, foaming head on the left) which tastes exactly like its named. Graham crackers, chocolate and a hint of marshmellow. Next we moved on to the Yellow Blazer kolsch and the Blueway pils which fell flat after the s’more but good nonetheless. We rebounded with a Blue Blaze altbier which was a homerun. And to top it off, the tap room was playing some of our favorite music: blues!