When traveling, do some research. I failed at this concept last week, but I got lucky. Let me explain …
Sign welcoming me to Salisbury |
I was heading to a conference in Salisbury, North Carolina. I didn’t think ahead to actually research breweries that I might find while there. I knew I’d be near or through Asheville, Greenville, Charlotte. But I just didn’t have time during my commute to stop in for a brewery tour. But the brain didn’t think to process PAST that and research my actual destination. Do your research, people.
Salisbury is a beautiful town of about 35,000 people east of Charlotte. It’s a railroad community, and a lot of downtown consists of rustic brick manufacturing buildings that once supported the industries. As soon as I got downtown, I spotted two places of particular interest … a brewery and another brewery. I look at my handy conference agenda and see: three hours of free time Wednesday afternoon and two hours Thursday night. Sold.
New Sarum Brewing has just celebrated their one year anniversary. There is a nice clean tasting
The paddle is shaped like North Carolina |
room, complete with a small seating area. Outside are some picnic tables, cornhole, and music playing. Very nice setup. Enough about that … how was the beer? I ordered a 5-sample flight and was pleasantly surprised. Nothing will go home as my favorite beer of all time, but all of them were good. Good, solid beers.
- 142 Blonde Ale (it’s made with grits!)
- Old Stone House IPA
- Hurley Park Blood Orange Wheat
- Round House Robust Porter
- High Rock Red
The next day, I walked down through the old railroad manufacturing buildings to a new, gleaming space that is an absolutely spectacular place to have a beer. Railwalk has a very impressive beer lineup and is a must visit. I was actually able to try 6 beers here before leaving … some of them were quite exotic.
Cayenne Imperial Stout |
- Cayenne Imperial Stout. It was a very nice stout, but I truly didn’t pick up on the cayenne.
- Nitro Flat Creek Swamp Water. It’s just fun to say. It’s a great stout with nice chocolate flavors. The nitro obviously makes it smooth. This was the winner of the bunch.
- Lee Street Wheat
- Buffalo Head IPA
- Ridge Red. They had this one available in six-packs, so it came home with me!
- Belgian Strong Pale. This was another fantastic choice.