First visit to a Triangle Treasure: Carolina Brewing Company

I've explored various craft brews and breweries for the past decade or so, a time line that I thought roughly paralleled the lifespan of the craft brew industry itself. This past week, I learned my estimate of the industry's time line was far off.

While in Holly Springs for a shoot on Thursday afternoon, I decided to stop at Carolina Brewing
Company, which I knew was one of North Carolina's oldest craft breweries. I'd seen its beers and iconic lion logo (right) in most shops that sell packaged beers in the area. I just didn't realize how old it was until I got home and did some research on it.

In fact, Carolina Brewing is the oldest craft brewery in North Carolina's Triangle area. It made its debut in a Chapel Hill brew pub in 1995, and there is another brew pub in Pittsboro in addition to the company headquarters in a Holly Springs.

The headquarters is at 140 Thomas Mill Road, an address in a non-descript building in Holly Springs Business Park. The GPS on my phone lacked precision in leading me to the appropriate turn off Thomas Mill Road, so I ended up driving past it once before determining that I had missed a turn.

The place has two doors -- one on the left for the brewery and tours, and one on the right that opens to the taproom. The photo leading off the post is the tour door, where you see several of the items shown in the photos below, starting with the sign on the door to enter.

In the taproom, I tried six beers: a brown ale, three IPAs (the Wiggo, the Hop Roar West Coast and the Be Like Mike New England style) and a special barrel-aged bourbon bock. I was familiar with CBC's pale ale, which I liked a lot ... and which I probably go back to regularly. But I wanted to explore other brews in its lineage. One I did not sample -- but wish I had -- was the Manestay Kolsch-style ale.

The brown ale was as rich as I was expecting, and delicious. I did not find a lot of difference between the Wiggo! and Hop Roar, though I liked them both. Be Like Mike was the fruity hazy brew I expected of a New England IPA, and not being a fan of fruity beers, I did not care for Be Like Mike. I should have cleansed the palate before sampling the bourbon bock because it landed the wrong way when I sipped it. I'd tried a bourbon influenced brew a few weeks ago at Elevated Grains, and was surprised how much I appreciated it. It's not a style I'd turn to much, but ... I guess it has its moments.

I really wanted another six-pack of the pale ale, but I felt adventurous, so I went for the Wiggo! (last picture below) and am enjoying the decision.

A portion of the bar area in the taproom (above) and samples of the copper-colored Wiggo!, Hop Roar and bourbon bock below (in that order). 

A little bit about a lot (photo potpourri)

When I launched Photo Potpourri nine years ago, I picked its name based on what I thought the blog would be used for -- posts reflecting various photos or photography topics I'd shoot or come across through the years.

It didn't quite turn out that way, but I think the phrase also applies to the various kinds of photography I've tackled through the years: a varitable cornucopia ... or, er, potpourri.

Today's post harkens to that original objective -- there are a few photos about a lot of different topics -- a potpourri, as it were.

Leading off the post above, I start with a photo of an extremely wide piece of wall art I came across in an eatery I patronized recently. Considering the subject matter of the painting, I thought its place in an eatery was appropriate.

Speaking of wall art ... the first five photos below were examples of just that very thing in the beach house Lee Ann's daughter rented last month on Topsail Island. I've already done posts about the trip to Topsail Island, but I didn't present any pictures of the house decor I that I took. If you've never rented a beach house or condominium, you can expect to find beach-related decor and colors like this when you arrive.

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White at the beach on Topsail Island, I consumed a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale before I decided I need to compose a picture to playfully needle a former work colleague who counts Newcastle as his favorite beer. The above is what I came up with.

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Speaking of beer, next up are the empty containers of four craft beers I bought at a local taproom and took home to sample recently. The taproom opened last fall, and I sensed it was a bit fortuitous because I'd come to enjoy the burgeoning craft beer industry in Indianapolis in my latter years there. There are plenty of craft breweries here in North Carolina, but there really weren't any as close to my home here as there were to my residence in Indy. Until Elevated Grains opened, anyway. Elevated Grains isn't a brewery; it has six rotating craft brews on tap but lots of package beer options to pick from and purchased -- cold and warm.

Elevated Grains owners select beers that they themselves have sampled. The brews come from everywhere, not just locally or just from North Carolina. Of the beers pictured here, Trophy Brewing's Double Death Spiral (an IPA) and Mother Earth Brewing's Oatmeal IPA are local. The former is from Raleigh, the latter from Kinston, N.C. Biscayne Bay Brewing Company's Pale Ale is from Florida (as the company name would suggest), and the Revision Brewing Company's Planet Lovetron Northeast-Style IPA from its Hazy Series is from Nevada.

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Sticking to the beer theme -- and if I many be allowed to jump back to the beach at Topsail Island -- one afternoon during the week there, Lee Ann's son-in-law Matt and I hopped into the car and drove to the Salty Turtle Beer Company at Surf City to check out its craft brew offerings. The four photos below -- including the beer-origin diagram wall art -- are from that visit.

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Next up are a few shots from a home garden project Lee Ann and I have been working on, although Lee Ann has done the yeoman's work (at least all but the extreme heavy lifting). We missed our gardens from our home in Indianapolis, and since the soil here is very sandy or mostly clay, we decided the best way to grow our vegetables and herbs would be in raised beds. The five photos below are photos of the project in various stages of completion. It is almost finished; Lee Ann at this very moment is working to install an automatic drip irrigation system.

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I finish the post by coming back to alcoholic beverages. I went out this morning to pick up some Malibu rum for mixed drinks, and didn't realize the state-owned liquor stores don't open till 11 a.m. I got there about 10:50, so I decided to wait the 10 minutes. I was the first one there.

In that short time, five other people showed up and decided to stand by the door (to avoid the "stampede," I guess). See the photo below. I figured five people in front of me wasn't going to cause me any great concern. And it didn't. But I guess North Carolinians are devoted about their liquor purchasing (shrug).