NC Beer & BBQ Trail

Our second flight, from R-L, was: the Millenium wheat (11% ABV), the Oatmeal stout, the Nut Brown Ale, and the DeBeen Espresso stout. This flight was an improvement from the last. Millenium had fairly complex flavor and definitely tasted high gravity - Nick was not a huge fan, though (which was not surprising since he doesn't generally like wheat beers). The Oatmeal stout was very nice and smooth. The nut brown was a nice, smooth, nutty beer - definitely a highlight among brown ales on our trip. The espresso was our favorite, though (with the nut brown coming in a close second) - it tasted like coffee beans, with a much stronger coffee flavor than most coffee stouts.

We didn't have high hopes for this place because it was in a mall parking lot next to a Chili's - we thought it might just be a generic restaurant with a couple of house brews. But we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of their beer! Liberty offers flights of four 5oz pours of their beers for the very reasonable price of $4.00. We had two, and this was our first, from R-L: Miss Liberty lager, the IPA, the Blackberry wheat, and the Rockets red ale. The lager was very plain - it tasted like Budweiser - and wasn't a great start. The IPA was very solid, though - just not quite on the level of Hoppyum. The Blackberry wheat was nice - the blackberry flavor was very subtle. But the flight ended on a disappointing note with the red - it was not very flavorful.

The taps at Liberty.

Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery. High Point, NC.

Foothills offers a sampler of their regular beers, 6 oz each, for $7.99. You can add additional seasonal samples for $1. They were out of the Pilot Mountain pale ale, so we got the Cottonwood Low Down brown in its place. The others we were given were the Carolina Blond cream ale, the Torch pilsner, the Hoppyum IPA, the Seeing Double IPA, and the People’s porter. We also asked to try the Foothills Red ale and the Frostbite black IPA. Getting a sample of the Sexual Chocolate was not an option but the bartender did let us each have a sip. The Carolina Blond is a very light summer beer but with more flavor than other light beers. The pilsner is a very light, solid beer. The Hoppyum is Nick’s favorite beer - it’s hoppier than the Seeing Double (and he prefers this hoppiness). The People’s is a solid porter with nice coffee notes - Nick dubbed it “effing delicious”. It is noticeably better than when it’s bottled. The Low Down was more bitter than some browns, which Nick liked - some browns are too plain. The Foothills Red was our favorite of the beers we hadn’t tried before. Very drinkable - smooth and flavorful. The Frostbite tastes like black Hoppyum. Overall we were very pleased with our stop here - one of the best of our trail adventures so far. The space and bar itself are great, we can vouch for their great fried mushrooms (generous portions!), and they had live music playing the whole time we were there. Drafts are normally $4 each but on Sundays they’re $3 (except for the Sexual Chocolate, which is always $5).

Foothills draft list.

Foothills Brewing Company. Winston-Salem, NC.

In addition to our regular order (one sandwich, hushpuppies, and sweet tea - pictured), we got another sandwich, a side of potato salad, and Brunswick stew (not pictured) because we weren't going to have another opportunity for barbecue later. The first thing we noticed about the sandwich was the generous portion of meat, and that it had some sauce on it already (although there was more available on the table). We liked the sauce a lot - a good, typical Lexington-style sauce (or "dip", as they call it). The sweet tea was very sweet - I thought I could taste some tea flavor but Nick didn't. The hushpuppies were very good - we liked their small size, and it seemed like maybe there was small bits of onion in them.

Little Richard's Lexington BBQ. Wallburg, NC.

Ass Clown offers flights of 4 beers of 6 oz each for $8 (and $2 for each additional 6 oz pour). We ordered the Ginger Bread brown, the nitro Dark Chocolate Sea Salt stout, the Raspberry Jalapeño stout, and the Guajillo Chili Honey stout. All except the Jalapeño had a noticeable sour taste. The Ginger Bread seemed like a good seasonal beer for Christmastime. The nitro chocolate was the most sour and our least favorite, followed by the Guajillo. The Jalapeño was by far the best, even against the samples we tried - the Butter Apple Pie (pale ale?), the French Oak IPA, and the Red Rye Weck IPA. The Apple Pie definitely had a buttery smoothness but overall it was sweet in a weird way. The French Oak was aged in Chardonnay barrels and the wine flavor was noticeable. The Weck had some strange savory flavor to it, and we're not sure that we liked it. But the Jalapeño! It was SO spicy. Jalapeño flavor dominated all others (there was no discernible raspberry flavor) and left your lips tingling long after you'd taken a sip. You could even smell the jalapeño before taking a swig.

Assclown Brewing Company. Cornelius, NC.

Our second flight at Pisgah included Nitro Chocolate Stout, Benton’s Bacon Snout, Vortex II Imperial Stout, and IPA. None of these were disappointing. The chocolate stout was deliciously smooth and creamy due to the nitro tap. The Benton’s was perhaps the most noteworthy of all. I’ve never tasted a drink so smoky! It tasted like a campfire in my mouth. It would be perfect paired with barbecue! For that purpose, I’d choose it over Fullsteam’s Hogwash any day. The IPA was also quite good and stood out from other IPA’s by having nice citrus notes.

They offered flights of four beers for $6, so we decided to try two. We started off with lighter beers: the Pisgah pale ale, the Blueberry wheat ale, the Red Devil tripel, and the Baptista quadrupel. All of them were good - the blueberry flavor in the wheat beer was very strong without being overpowering or too sweet, and both the tripel and the quadrupel were excellent. The tripel had subtle raspberry notes and the quadrupel was unlike any beer I've ever had - extremely full-bodied without being heavy, and chock full of flavor.

Their draught selection. They had over a dozen of their own beers as well as some guest taps, including Lagunitas, Foothills, and others.

Pisgah Brewing Company. Black Mountain, NC.

Wicked Weed only opened about a month ago and they already have an impressive beer selection with nearly twenty to choose from. Unfortunately it was difficult to taste very many because they only offer flights Monday thru Thursday before 7 pm. We were there on a Friday so it was not an option. They did offer "half pours" - a 10 oz alternative to a full pint - but nothing smaller. To complicate matters further, there were certain beers that were only available in their downstairs bar area and others that can only be ordered in the upstairs restaurant. They even had brews that were only sold on certain days of the week. It was clear that Wicked Weed was trying to entice their customers to return again and again. This may be a shrewd business practice, but it was certainly frustrating to out-of-town customers like us. We tried the Tyranny Hoppy Red Ale, Empress Honeydew Tripel, and Poperidge Belgian IPA. All were excellent, finely crafted beers. We wish we could have tried more. We also ate dinner there - they have an outstanding menu.

Wicked Weed menu, page 2