Anniversaries abound this weekend for Charlotte beer scene
Anniversary celebrations are always fun, and even more so when it involves beer. Three such events are taking place this weekend; here’s your guide. Cue the Tony! Toni! Tone!
Olde Mecklenburg Brewery
On Saturday, Olde Mecklenburg Brewery will celebrate five years of some of Charlotte’s finest beer. The anniversary party runs from noon until 10 p.m. As part of the festivities, OMB will feature 11 beers on tap: Copper, Captain Jack, Fruh Bock, LoSo Ryeder, Dunkel, Anniversary Alt, Yule Bock, Bourbon Barrel-Aged Yule Bock, Fat Boy, Bauern Bock and Southside Weiss. In other words, best of the best.
The brewery is also offering free tours at 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., while Time Sawyer will provide live music from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Here’s to many more years with Olde Mecklenburg, which plans to relocate down the road to a larger site in June. Cheers!
In other OMB news, with all of the Charlotte Craft Beer Week events, I didn’t get to mention their announcement that the brewery is switching up some of its packaging. As of this week, you can now get six-packs of Copper, Captain Jack and Fruh Bock at local grocery stores and bottle shops. This is a great move, in my opinion, as the previous packaging in 22 ounce bombers posed an issue if you didn’t want to drink all at one time. Several Olde Meck seasonals will remain in bombers; for more information check out Daniel Hartis’ post at Charlotte Beer.
World of Beer
Tonight (Friday) is World of Beer’s second anniversary bash, and do they have a tap lineup for you. Start with NoDa’s Monstro, Olde Voyager Barleywine and Hop Cakes; Birdsong’s Puppies on Penguins, Triple C’s Space Cadet Black IPA and Olde Mecklenburg’s Anniversary Alt. And that’s just a sampling from the local taps; all four have other beers featured, along with Unknown, Lenny Boy and Four Friends. In all, 40 incredible beers are on tap for tonight, including Olde Hickory’s Event Horizon, Foothills’ Sexual Chocolate and Wicked Weed’s Black Angel and What She’s Having, among others.
The South End beer bar will also have games, live entertainment and cake (it is an anniversary party, after all). As part of their raffle, World of Beer’s prizes will be brewery gift baskets, gift cards and signs, a cornhole set and several bottles, including Terrapin Cinnamon Roll’d Wake ‘n Bake and Wicked Weed Black Angel and Serenity.
The party begins at 3 p.m. and runs until 2 a.m., and there is also a complimentary pulled pork buffet provided by the Chrome Toaster.
Bulldog Beer and Wine
Charlotte’s newest bottle shop turns one this weekend, and is having events Friday through Sunday. Tonight Bulldog is celebrating with a disco party, with prizes going to the best costume. Tomorrow night (Sat.) is a Grateful Dead/classic rock themed event with live music at 8 p.m. from Hunter’s Travesty and barbecue from The Meat Shop. Sunday marks the inaugural “Bulldog 500 Scavenger Hunt” which is a scavenger hunt on bicycle. The 500 is broken up into teams of four, and it is $25 per group.
