Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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North Carolina Beer

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north_carolina
Today in 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state.

North Carolina
State_NorthCarolina

North Carolina Breweries

North Carolina Brewery Guides

Guild: North Carolina Brewers Guild

State Agency: North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission

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  • Capital: Raleigh
  • Largest Cities: Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem
  • Population: 8,049,313; 11th
  • Area: 53821 sq.mi., 28th
  • Nickname: Tar Heel State
  • Statehood: 12th, November 21, 1789

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  • Alcohol Legalized: April 28, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 46
  • Rank: 12th
  • Beer Production: 6,183,748
  • Production Rank: 9th
  • Beer Per Capita: 20.8 Gallons

north-carolina

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 38.9%
  • Cans: 55.2%
  • Kegs: 5.8%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.62
  • Per Case: $1.39
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $19.13
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $19.13

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $3,809,238,894
  • Direct Impact: $9,224,009,106
  • Supplier Impact: $10,726,058,038
  • Induced Economic Impact: $13,291,784,223
  • Total Impact: $33,241,851,367

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: No sales between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday or between 2 a.m. and noon on Sunday
    Off Premises:
  • Grocery Store Sales: Yes
  • Notes: 15% ABV cap on beer, No sale of alcoholic beverages between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 2 a.m. until noon on Sundays, State stores closed on Sundays. Bottled liquor must be sold in ABC Packages stores, open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Effective December 1, 2010, the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Commission, no longer carries any product stronger than 151 proof, citing concerns from a single county that the majority of the 190 proof grain alcohol product was being purchased in package stores near college campuses.

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Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.

For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.

Beer Birthday: Sean Lilly Wilson

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fullsteam
Today is the 40th birthday of Sean Lilly Wilson, founder of Fullsteam Brewing in Durham, North Carolina. Even before the brewery opened this past April, Sean made a name for himself and the brewery through twitter and their blog. Join me in wishing Sean a very happy birthday.

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Marty Jones and Sean at the Craft Brewers Conference earlier this year in Chicago.

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Greg Koch with Sean at CBC.

North Carolina To Grow Hops

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The Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer has an interesting article, Brewers Have High Hopes For N.C. Hops, about farmers in the state, centered in the mountains around Asheville, experimenting with planting hops.

Hoping to build on the craft-brewing and local food movements, N.C. State University researchers in Raleigh and a handful of farmers in the mountains are growing experimental plots of hops, the cone-shaped flower clusters that brewers add to beer for bitterness and aroma and as a natural preservative.

Rob Austin, Deanna Osmond, and Jeanine Davis at NCSU got a $28,000, one-year grant this year from the Golden LEAF Foundation to investigate the commercial viability of growing hops here. In March, a couple of volunteers from a soon-to-open Durham brewery called Fullsteam came to help researchers plant a small plot of about 200 plants at a university field laboratory near Lake Wheeler south of Raleigh.

With tobacco demand presumably in steady decline, it would certainly be interesting to see the south rise again with farmers turning to hops.

Beer In Art #74: LC Neill’s Heineken Beer Caps

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art-beer
Today’s work of art was painted in 2007 by LC Neill, a North Carolina artist. She does a small painting every day, and this is one of them. It’s formal title is Two Will Do, though it’s also known as Heineken Beer Caps. It’s a 5″x 5″ oil painting.

Heineken Beer Caps

Here’s what Lori Neill says about the painting:

This was an extremely challenging piece for me as I found the lettering to be a lot of work. You would be surprised how much you learn about a bottle cap after drawing it and painting it with this level of detail.

I loved the contrast of the deep green with the bright red graphic star, and ultimately wanted the finished painting to have a creative feel to it. One beer cap is lying face down and the other is standing inside the first one. They are sitting on a highly reflective surface. I hope you enjoy it!

There’s a short biography at her website, where you can also see a number of her other paintings. You can also see many more of her “daily paintings” at Still Rivers Studios and at Daily Painters.

Fullsteam’s Brewery Porn From Space

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fullsteam
Regular Bulletin readers already know I have an unnatural, some might say unhealthy, love of brewing equipment — a.k.a. brewery porn — so I was thrilled to see Fullsteam Brewery’s new brewhouse from space. I especially love the artists rendering of where his brewhouse might have ended up had it not been for the hand of fate stepping in and cutting NASA’s budget.

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Recently, the reworked-for-full-gravity brewhouse was “docked” at the Fullsteam space in Durham, North Carolina.

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To see more of it, check out the original post or the Flickr gallery.

Beer In Art #48: Stan Ruszala’s Asheville Bars & Beer

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art-beer
Since we’ve been in Asheville, North Carolina all week, I was happy to stumble on a local artist at a Cuban restaurant we ate at, called Havana. The artist’s name is Stan Ruszala, and he had a little exhibition going on in the back room of the restaurant. He appears to live near Asheville and paints beer and other alcohol subjects in Dublin, Las Vegas, New York, and, of course, Asheville. Here’s his painting of the bar Jack of the Wood (which also brews Green Man Ales down the road).
Ruszala_jack-in-wood

And here’s one of the city’s best places for local beers, Barley’s Taproom.
Ruszala_barleys

His biography from his website gives some more detail about him:

Stan Ruszala was born and raised in Springfield Massachusetts. Although he has always had an interest in art, he began painting prolifically about five years ago when his wife noticed artistic talent in sketches and doodles he would leave around the house. She promptly bought him everything she thought he could possibly need to pursue a career in art. Stan picked up a brush, and you are looking at the result. He finds most of his inspiration from city scenes at night and chooses to paint mostly crowded streets in front of local or famous establishments. His use of a black canvas to begin, and fluorescents to highlight help distinguish his unique style. Stan has had numerous art shows, sold several pieces and is being displayed all over the world. He lives near Asheville, North Carolina with his wife Mickey and their ~13 pets.

And while not strictly a beer place, we did eat at the famous Tupelo Honey Cafe, depicted here by Ruszala, one of two paintings of the restaurant.
Ruszala_tupelo

And the kids just loved the pizza at Mellow Mushroom, and the beer list was pretty darn good, too.
Ruszala_mellow-mush

I think my favorite painting of Ruszala’s was an untitled one that wasn’t on his website but which was in the exhibit at Havana. Unfortunately, the colors are washed out a little bit in my photo, but it’s a dramatic moment captured on canvas.
Ruszala_beer