Hickory Hops

This post below is a repost of a submission I made to Craft Beer Collective - a friend's blog that covers the NC craft beer scene. While no racing, biking or running was involved, I was happy with the way a lot of the photos came out from the day. I thought I would share the post here including the photos selected for publication by Craft Beer Collective. 

A group of us made the trip to Hickory, North Carolina last weekend for the 9th annual Hickory Hops Beer Festival. While the weather forecast was looking sketchy for the day, by the time we arrived to town, the skies had cleared and the rain had passed. Little did we know that significant storms with tornadoes would soon be moving into Raleigh where we had just come from.

We made it into the festival after pre-gaming at the Hickory Mellow Mushroom for a bit filling up on pizza and pints. As expected, the festival was jam packed with NC breweries and a few other southern breweries from SC, GA and even TN. We started with Pisgah Brewing and worked our way through the festival tents with the occasional break to enjoy the bands playing on stage throughout the 6 hour festival.

Highlights of beers and breweries that stood out to us included newcomers Nantahala Brewing‘s Noon Day IPA, Loe’s Brewing Chocolate Stout XS and Birdsong Brewing‘s Saison. Out of the established breweries, we couldn’t get enough of Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery. Apparently, the judges couldn’t either. The day also includes the Carolina Championship of Beer which happened in the morning. Medals and plaques were given to brewery winners in many categories of beer styles. Liberty seems to have easily won the most medals and they drew us back to their booth 3 times for their various timed releases throughout the day including several fantastic sours and their Black IPA.

One of our local favorites from the Triangle, Aviator Brewing made their first visit to Hickory Hops and won 5 medals for their various styles of brew. Surprisingly, HogWild IPA was not one of them! The Olde Hickory Brewery had a full line-up of their brews including a special Imperial Stout with honey that clocked in at 10.5 ABV. Natty Greene’s Brewery had several special brews for the day including a Barrel-aged version of their Black Powder Stout and Anniversary Sour which took home the Best in Show award. Sadly, while Pisgah Brewing also won a medal for their Bacon Stout, it was not available for tasting.

It was also great to visit with the brewers at several of my favorite NC breweries including Carl at Wedge Brewery, Josh at Mother Earth Brewery, Mark at Aviator Brewery and Paul at Duck-Rabbit Brewery.
By the end of the day, we managed to visit and sample nearly every brewery booth at the festival. Cheers to Hickory Hops and NC craft beer for a tremendous day.


             

Craft Beer Collective contributor @beerandracing – a NC craft beer fanatic, motorsports junkie and avid runner. Author of Beer and Racing. Operator of Bike 2 Beer.

Bike 2 Beer and (Larry's) Beans

On Saturday, we went for our first bike ride of the year dubbed the Bike 2 Beer n Beans. Two friends joined us for the 10 mile ride to Larry's Beans coffee roaster near downtown Raleigh for their open house and tour. It's an event I had been wanting to do since last year and I was able to get us on the list for their April tour. I figured it would be a good way to start the B2B season early since Larry's also has Big Boss Brewing beer at their tours given their partnership with the local Raleigh brewery. Larry's beans are used to make the Aces + Ates coffee stout that comes out each winter from Big Boss. 

Our ride to Larry's got off to a late start so we had to crank it to get there in time for their 11:30am start. We arrived just as Larry and his colleague Kevin were introducing themselves and the operation to the crowd of over 100 people. The tour than split up into two groups as we first learned about their many methods of environmentally responsible operation including use of 100% bio-diesel fuel to run their delivery bus, rain water collection system for flushing toilets, and windows that allow less use of electric lighting. The second part of the tour took us in the roasting and packaging house to learn about the process of preparing the many types of beans they use. The final portion of our tour included a tasting of fresh coffee made from three distinct beans and to sample the differences between the three. 

 

In between the two sessions, Larry's gifted us with a nice selection of finger food from Neomonde Deli in Raleigh. We love Neomonde food so it was an awesome addition to the tour. By the end of the tasting, having also had 2 cups of coffee upon our arrival, I was pretty hyped up on caffeine which made it the perfect time to switch to beer to bring me down. 

Larry's broke out draft beer from Big Boss and I started the afternoon with a pint or two of Bad Penny Brown and Angry Angel Kolsch. Thanks guys! 

  

We departed Larry's and headed over to Five Points to scope our next stop. We settled on Lily's Pizza and I went with a Bell's Two-Hearted bottle which was poured into a frosty glass. Booo! Lily's is a hipster pizza and draft joint so the beer selection mostly reflected that. I did spy some French Broad Brewing bombers in the cooler but went with a 16 oz bottle for this stop. Lily's could benefit from adding a few local taps to their draft selection. The pizza is pretty good though Lynnwood Grill's is better (a future stop for a Bike 2 Beer ride I am sure).


Heading home from Lily's, we stopped in Crabtree Tavern behind Crabtree Mall. It's conveniently located right off the Crabtree Greenway. I went with a local brew this time - a pint of Aviator Brewing's Hot Rod Red. This was their first beer release when the brewery opened their original location at the Fuquay airfield and it has improved mightily since than. 


We than departed Crabtree and rode the last 4 miles back to the barn. 20 miles, 3-4 cups of coffee, some education, 3-4 beers. Not a bad way to get back in the saddle for 2011.

Bridge Run weekend in the lowcountry

Guess what? This past weekend, we ran and drank beer. Nothing new I know but this time we were down in Charleston, SC for the Cooper Bridge Run. It was a little spring time getaway for the Mrs and I to explore the up and coming Charleston beer and food scene while finally running the annual 10k race from Mt Pleasant into downtown. Our fellow beer knurd friends Dave and Hoey from Raleigh were also in town for the Furthur Festival and to partake in the beer scene as well.

We stayed in an old row house not far off King Street that we booked a room in for the 3 day weekend. It ended up being a great stay and couldn't have been a more convenient location in relation to the race and historic Charleston's offerings. 

   

Race day came on Saturday morning and the weather was absolutely perfect. The wind that had whipped through the city all week died down and the sun came up well before the 8am start. As expected, the crowds at the start and throughout the race were insane. Estimates were that 40,000 runners and walkers took to the start with thousands more crowding the streets cheering in downtown Charleston.

All in all, we both had a good race though the challenge of running around and through hundreds if not thousands of walkers and slower runners for the 6.2 miles was daunting. Kudos to race organizers for switching to a wave start with corrals this year but shame on the folks who lied about their predicted pace or snuck into corrals up front that they had no business being in. Despite the crowds, my time was within 3 minutes of my 10k PR that I set back in 2003. I would love to run this race again and start closer to the front, I think a new 10k PR would be doable considering the majority of the race is flat. Running up the bridge was challenging but no more so than the hills we regularly run in Raleigh. The bridge's downhill and flat finish more than rewarded us for the run up the other side.

  

As she did in Greensboro, Michelle did a great job running her first 10k distance. She managed to run the entire distance and maintained her pace to finish within her targeted time. I was very proud of her for making it look so easy. The goal of running a half marathon this spring is looking promising right now.

Our post-run celebration quickly moved from Madison Square to Closed 4 Business on King St. C4B is a new craft beer bar and restaurant that we quickly became fans of upon our arrival to Charleston. They really serve up some great local and national brands of brew. Following lunch and pints at C4B, we headed over to The Griffon, another older bar in Charleston that also serves up craft beer on tap and bottle. After another round or three with the guys, we headed back to the house for some rest.

Along with the run and tasty meals around town, we also found time to visit three Charleston area craft breweries. Our first night in town took us out to Coast Brewing in North Charleston and Westbrook Brewing in Mt Pleasant. We had heard a lot about Coast but nothing about Westbrook being that they are so new. Both offered tasty brews that we really enjoyed. We sampled 4 beers at Coast and 6 at Westbrook. Our favorite beer of the night was predictably the HopArt IPA at Coast though their All Simcoe Pale and Milk Stouts were particularly awesome as well. It was good to chat with the owners and brewers at Coast - good folks who just love good beer. We got to Westbrook pretty late after the tour hours were ending but we still got to the bar for a quick word with the bar manager and a peek in the massive brewhouse. They definitely have a future ahead of them.

   

   

Saturday evening, we headed out to Folly Beach for the heck of it. No idea what we would get into but as we pulled into town, I noticed a sign along Center St  that said Brew Pub. After exploring Folly a bit, we walked over to the Brew Pub to check things out. Turns out, we were at Folly Beach Brewing Company and it didn't take long for me to meet one of the owners and brewers, Andy introduced himself and showed me around the "brew house." Folly Beach Brewing is likely the smallest brewery I will ever see as its only a step above a lot of my friend's home brewing operations.

Andy was very cool, explained that they recently ran out of beer and would have more ready in a week or two. Given the size of their operation, that was totally understandable. He mentioned that they make a lot of IPAs and that their hefeweizen is very popular. Even though they were out of their own brew, the bar had a great selection of craft brew taps and a cold box of bottles to choose from. Andy broke out a couple specialties he wanted to share with us and the day continued into the evening. It didn't take us long to become fans of Folly Beach and I predict a return visit for a longer stay real soon.

All and all, another great weekend of beer and racing with the Mrs and friends. Charleston is definitely a great spot for enjoying both.