Hey guys, just curious who all is going to the festival this Saturday? I've been bugging Nils from Queen City Brewers Festival for a beer list, but I think that's still in the works. It was a great time last year and I'm looking forward to it again Saturday.
When I said addition, I totally meant additional to my early drinking. It not because I grew up in char-meck schools and they didn't teach me the difference of the word edition.........
Uptown is your best bet. Do not stay on independence or sugar creek. Both of those areas may be close but HIGHLY unrecommended.
I just did a "center city" search on hotels.com. it looks like the crowne plaza is the cheapest at $98 which is an older hotel. The Aloft which is just a couple years old is $119. There are a few in between those prices, but I would go with The Aloft. Anywhere else outside of Uptown/Center City (same thing) you will pay $20 for a cab.
Hmmm...risk of rape/murder after going to a beer festival and staying in shadytown or $98...might sell my tickets.
Seriously! What city can u get a decent hotel room (ie Hampton Inn type) for under 100 on a weekend in a downtown area? NoDa is not some suburb of charlotte. It is an up and coming artist community neighboring some low income neighborhoods. NoDa has no hotels, not even a grocery store. The closest and cheapest hotels are very undesireable. Downtown is all of 2 miles away and provides us with a large variety of safe and nice hotels.
FWIW...hotwire.com has a 4 star hotel in downtown Charlotte saturday night for $89 (taxes included) cheap cab ride and you can fart around in noda afterwards. I think Salud and Revolution pizza will be have nice crowds afterwards...
Thats the route I decided to take. Not a bad deal on hotwire. Now I just have to pay for parking downtown and a cab to and from >_< Oy, I hope this beer is good!
You got a great deal!!! It should be a $10 cab ride with tip from uptown to Noda. Good lookin out on Wolf's part!! As mentioned earlier, there are alot of things going on in Noda and everything is within a small three block radius. Noda has alot of charm, character, great people and is definitely more eclectic than uptown. If you find yourself hanging out uptown instead of Noda, Queen City Q has great food and beer selection. I have yet to go to The Dandelion Market, but I hear good things about their food and beer as well. Welcome to Charlotte!!
Check this out, from the website: If your post-session plans take you elsewhere, our friends at Keffer Hyundai will gladly taxi you to your area-destination (within 5 miles) FREE of charge! Just send us an email to register for a ride. Dunno if there is a cutoff for the ride email but can't hurt to ask.
Ended up getting a ride from the Hyundai folks, thanks! Also, I was quite impressed with some of the stuff from Free Range Brewing and the "Baby Maker" from Triple C. I felt the venue was crowded though...maybe they will move it next year?
The beer was hit or miss, in my opinion. That said, I had some good beer there (See above). The venue was very crowded and there really wasnt any designated area to get out the way of people trying to sample. I wont be going again unless they change venues.
We had a good time. I didn't think it was too crowded, but the layout was poor. I don't think I ever waited more than 30 seconds to get a taste but finding a spot to chit chat with actually being in someones line/way was hard. I did hear someone that talked to the event organizer that the plan is to move it to the NC Music factory next year. Beer wise, I agree with agirlandherpen that there were good beers and there were not so good beers. Free Range was also one of my favorites brewers for the day, with Birdsong Mexicali Stout was my favorite beer. We were also surprised at the Rock Bottom DIPA. The festival was what I expected. We have some good breweries and some OK breweries. Wasn't expecting anything earth shattering, especially due to the size and number of people attending. Charlotte's knock your socks off beer event is Black and Blue!
I thought the event was great. I don't think it was too crowded at all. I was impressed with the OMB Baltic Porter, the Rockbottom Winter beer and DIPA, the Kind Imperial Pale Ale, the Free Range Awrye (sp?), the Hops Scottish Ale, the NoDa Imperial Coco Loco, and the Four Friends White Chocolate Raspberry beer. It was like Valentine's Day in a glass. I was REALLY impressed with the three Ass Clown beers I had: the blueberry jalapeno, the butter apple pie and the chocolate sea salt. Not sure If I'd want 14 oz of any of these, gut the flavor was right on the mark. I had a great time.
