Top 5 North Carolina Beers #ncbeer

I live in the Triad, so my scale may be a little skewed, but there are more breweries in North Carolina than there are in Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia COMBINED. That says a lot about the craft brewery scene in the Old North State whose motto is "esse quam vederi", to be rather than to seem.

To be perfectly honest, this list is just my personal opinion. I do count myself as a semi-professional beer drinker and hedonist, so there's also that.

According to my Untappd check-ins, my Top 5 beers are:

1. Hoppyum IPA, Foothills Brewing
2. Yuengling Traditional Lager, Yuengling Beer Company
3. Not Your Father's Root Beer, Small Town Brewery
4. Golden Monkey, Victory Brewing Company
5. Yadkin Riverkeeper Doppelbock, Foothills Brewing

I don't always check in on Untappd, but when I do--it's usually so I don't forget the excellent OR truly horrible beers I've had. More often than not, most beers fall in the 3-4 bottle cap range. Also, more often than not, beers produced by small craft breweries are one-offs, never to be produced again. Those beers lie in wait in our memories and all we have to show for it are hopefully, photos of us enjoying ourselves, bottle stickers and maybe even a collection of bottles or growlers above the transoms of our kitchens at home.

I have to pay homage to my favorite beers that are no longer produced, so I can move forward and discover new-to-me brews that will never take the place of the old ones, but will remind us how are craft brewery in North Carolina has come

Cackalacky, Fullsteam Brewery
The best and most true ginger ale, I've ever had. It was always my beer of choice when visiting the Durham brewhouse and it blew me away every time I snapped open a can at parties, gatherings and in the comfort of my own home. When

Fat Boy Baltic Porter, Old Mecklenburg Brewing

Maplewood Aged Sauvignon Blanc Jade, Foothills Brewing (no longer in production)

Hoppyum, Foothills Brewing

Coconut Cream Ale, Hoots Beer Co.

Walter White IPA, Small Batch Beer Co.

Dead and Berried Imperial Stout, Foothills Brewing

Freak of Nature, Wicked Weed Brewing