Thursday, July 3, 2008

Dirty little delicious secret

You know what? North Carolina produces some damn fine beer.
I know, who knew? Until I moved to North Carolina, I figured the only things going for the state were pork barbecue and NASCAR, and I don't really like NASCAR.
Oh, but I was wrong. Very wrong. And today, the biggest little secret in American craft beer is the Tar Heel state. Foothills Brewing, Big Boss Brewing, Carolina Brewing Company, Highland Brewing Company and on and on are producing some of the best beers on the Eastern seaboard, if not in the United States. It's simply astounding how many quality breweries are operating in that state.
But don't take my word for it. Instead, consider the results of my very unscientific poll.
Wanting to know how some of my favorite North Carolina beers would stand up against a few of the best craft beers from around the country, I decided to put them to a test. So I pulled together a few friends and cajoled them into undertaking a blind tasting (rough stuff, huh?).
Some of these folks were beer enthusiasts, some were indifferent about beer, one was a oenophile, one was a lobbyist and two worked for the Defense Department. These folks were from all parts of the country and world, and not a one had ever spent much time at all in North Carolina. (For the record, the missus and I did not participate in the taste test.)
The only thing they knew going into the tasting was that some of the nine beers were from North Carolina. I asked them to rank the beers from most favorite to least favorite.
Facing off against the North Carolina beers were two craft beers that were named by a Washington Post panel as two of the best in the country (Hook & Ladder's Backdraft Brown (1) and The Raven (2), as well as two of the most popular craft beers in America (Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1 and Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA).

Here were the beers:



(The others)

Here are the results (the North Carolina beers are in bold):

Taster 1:
1. Baltimore-Washington Beer Works' The Raven Special Lager
2. Carolina Brewing Company's Pale Ale
3. Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale
4. Hook & Ladder Brewing Company's Backdraft Brown
5. Big Boss Bad Penny Brown
6. Duck Rabbit Amber
7. Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1
8. Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA
9. Big Boss Holy Roller IPA

Taster 2:
1. Baltimore-Washington Beer Works' The Raven Special Lager
2. Carolina Brewing Company's Pale Ale
3. Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale
4. Hook & Ladder Brewing Company's Backdraft Brown
5. Big Boss Bad Penny Brown
6. Duck Rabbit Amber
7. Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1
8. Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA
9. Big Boss Holy Roller IPA

Taster 3:
1. Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1
2. Carolina Brewing Company's Pale Ale
3. Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale
4. Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA
5. Big Boss Holy Roller IPA
6. Baltimore-Washington Beer Works' The Raven Special Lager
7. Big Boss Bad Penny Brown
8. Duck Rabbit Amber
9. Hook & Ladder Brewing Company's Backdraft Brown

Taster 4:
1. Carolina Brewing Company's Pale Ale
2. Big Boss Bad Penny Brown
3. Hook & Ladder Brewing Company's Backdraft Brown
4. Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1
5. Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA
6. Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale
7. Baltimore-Washington Beer Works' The Raven Special Lager
8. Duck Rabbit Amber
9. Big Boss Holy Roller IPA

Taster 5:
1. Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA
2. Carolina Brewing Company's Pale Ale
3. Baltimore-Washington Beer Works' The Raven Special Lager
4. Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1
5. Big Boss Bad Penny Brown
6. Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale
7. Big Boss Holy Roller IPA
8. Hook & Ladder Brewing Company's Backdraft Brown
9. Duck Rabbit Amber

Taster 6:
1. Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale
2. Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA
3. Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1
4. Big Boss Holy Roller IPA
5. Duck Rabbit Amber
6. Baltimore-Washington Beer Works' The Raven Special Lager
7. Big Boss Bad Penny Brown
8. Carolina Brewing Company's Pale Ale
9. Hook & Ladder Brewing Company's Backdraft Brown

If you're keeping score, a North Carolina beer landed in every taster's top one or two. Not bad for a state better known for basketball than breweries.
I'd tell you to run out and discover for yourself how good these beers are, but you can't. Not if you don't live in North Carolina, anyway. But maybe, just maybe, if you demand that your local beer stores and your favorite bars start carrying some of North Carolina's finest, this great little secret won't be so secret any more.

1 comment:

MLL said...

Oh no! The beer you attribute to Carolina Brewing Co. is NOT from Carolina Brewing Co.! The beer shown in your photos is actually from a brewery out near Mooresville, NC. The Carolina Brewing Co. beers are much tastier. They do a pale ale (purple and black label), an IPA (blue and black label) and a nut brown (brown and black label.) They also do several seasonal, though those are only available in kegs and pony kegs.

Michele,
from Holly Springs, home of Carolina Brewing Co.