Wow,

Lew Bryon, in an article for Conde Nast Portfolio and MSNBC, names Durham’s World Beer Festival one of the top six beer fests in the world! He even mentions the cask and barrel tent (bold mine)…

World Beer Festival (October 4)
At World Beer, All About Beer magazine gathers together not just craft brewers from around the country but also importers who bring beers from around the world. On the first Saturday in October, they all arrive at the historic ballpark in Durham, North Carolina, where “Bull Durham” was filmed. There are specialty presentations of aged beers, cask-conditioned beers, and rare and expensive beers. It doesn’t hurt that Durham sits smack-dab in the middle of some of the best barbecue country in the South.

And it’s not like Lew is glowing about the WBF because he’s heard good things about it. He was there!

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Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Chris Davis meets famous people at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego! See the pictures at popthecap.org if you’re getting this as an RSS feed!

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Congratulations to Foothills Brewing and Ham’s Brewhouse for winning medals at the 2008 World Beer Cup in San Diego! This year’s competition had the most entries and largest number of participating breweries. Over 1,500 people attended the gala.

Good news for those of us that love North Carolina beer!

Foothills won GOLD in the Robust Porter category for their People’s Porter (first place out of 49 entries) and SILVER in the American Style Stout for the Total Eclipse Stout (20 entries).

Ham’s Brewhouse and Restaurant in Greenville won BRONZE in the America Style Strong Pale Ale category for their Peg Leg Pale Ale (52 entries).

Congratulate these breweries by drinking their beer! Way to go, Jamie and TL!!!

http://www.beertown.org/events/wbc/

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From Seen Through A Glass, Lew Bryon’s awesome beer blog:

“Putting in Prohibition to fight booze business corruption was like shooting your dog because he farts real bad when you feed him beef jerky.”

That’s all for today. It’s too nice out to blog.

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(Tyler’s Apex is just a few doors down from the Beaver Creek movie theaters. I think we’ll be there around 6:30 tonight. Or I might sneak off on my own a little later. Perhaps I’ll see you there! )

Tyler’s Restaurant & Taproom
1483 Beaver Creek Commons Drive
Apex, North Carolina 27502

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TYLER’S NEWEST LOCATION IN APEX OPENS TODAY @ 5PM!

The day has finally come to open our doors in Apex! Please come by to say, “Hello” and share a pint and some food with friends. With 80 beers on tap and over 75 hand selected bottles we offer something for everyone! We look forward to seeing you soon!

~Tyler’s

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Greetings from Pop The Cap!

When we first started the Pop The Cap campaign five years ago, our focus was united around one single goal: lift the archaic 6% alcohol cap on beer in North Carolina. We reached that goal in two years and have been enjoying (and buying) the fruits of our labor ever since.

Once we lifted the cap, Pop The Cap shifted its mission, knowing that the opportunity to promote craft beer in North Carolina is unlimited. Over the past two years, we’ve traveled throughout the state to lead beer dinners, head up small festivals, and promote North Carolina craft beer. Within the past two months, we’ve served local beer to the governor in Winston-Salem and promoted North Carolina beers in New York City.

Now, it’s time to take on that next challenge. It’s time to take beer beyond the bar.

Introducing Barley Legal by Pop The Cap, the first ever Farmhouse Ale perfume for women. Fruity malts and fresh, circusy hops provide the perfect balance of spicy and sweet. Barley Legal by Pop The Cap is for that discriminating woman who knows the intoxicating power of beer. Plan accordingly: the slightest application and two lovers will want to dry-hop for 30, 60, or 90 minutes. (120 minutes is not legal in North Carolina; we have no plans to pursue its legalization).

Because of the added SD Alcohol-40, Barley Legal can only be sold in North Carolina Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) stores. Ask for it by name!

Proudly brewed and bottled by world-renowned parfumeur Brasserie d’Imbéciles d’Avril.

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Tickets for the World Beer Festival — Raleigh are on sale now.
These tickets sell out in a couple of weeks…perhaps days. Not bad for a three-year-old festival that brings in 8,000 people to Moore Square in downtown Raleigh.

Prices are higher this year: $40 for general admission and $75 for the VIP tickets (which always sell out, though I’m not sure to whom). I personally like mingling under the tent, meeting the brewers / reps, and buying whatever vendor food I’m in the mood for. (Usually greasy and delicious.)

Most of you know the drill: two sessions, each four hours long (12 noon to 4pm; 6 to 10pm). Tons of breweries, though the list of actual attendees isn’t up yet. Good music, lots of local food vendors, and the inevitable odd US Smokeless Tobacco Shack and their sales guys with buzz cuts. And, during the early session, a few clowns to scare the youngins!

If you don’t want to purchase tickets online, visit one of these fine locations for printed tickets…but do it soon!

DOWNTOWN RALEIGH
Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, 328 W Morgan St.

NC STATE AREA
Village Draft House, 428 Daniels St.

CAPITAL BLVD AREA
American Brewmaster, 3021-5 Stoneybrook Dr.

NORTH RALEIGH
Sawmill Tap Room, 7701 Lead Mine Rd.
Falls Tap Room, 5009 Falls of the Neuse

CARY
Harrison’s Bar & Grill, 301-C N. Harrison Ave.
MacGregor Draft House, 107 Edinburgh South Dr.

HOLLY SPRINGS
Bass Lake Draft House, 124 Bass Lake Rd.

DURHAM
Sam’s Quik Shop, 1605 Erwin Rd.

WINSTON-SALEM
Foothills Brewing, 638 W. Fourth St.

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Last night, Jamie of Foothills and Sebastian of Natty Greene’s were the featured brewers and pourers at an evening celebrating North Carolina beer. The audience? Around 300 attendees of the North Carolina Governor’s Conference on Tourism, held this year in downtown Winston-Salem…literally two blocks from Foothills Brewing.

The attendees were mostly tourism, marketing, economic development, and convention and visitor bureau professionals from all across the state. We saw name tags from all over the North Carolina map: Blowing Rock, Charlotte, Emerald Isle, Wilson, Edenton. We poured beer for mayors, state employees, PR executives, and Governor Mike Easley. Only a few people of them asked for green beer. Most people “got” the fact that this was North Carolina beer — beers brewed two blocks away (Foothills) or twenty-five miles away (Natty Greene’s). My hope is that the attendees got something a little deeper: that the beer they were drinking is the economic lifeblood of the brewer who served it to them.

Last night’s event and the New York media trip in February represent an important shift in the Pop The Cap mission. Over the past year, restaurants, retailers, beer bars, and breweries have stepped up to the plate big time, organizing beer dinners and tastings statewide. Quite frankly, Pop The Cap’s efforts to promote beer culture in North Carolina has been greatly eclipsed by the industry’s own momentum. Beer businesses statewide are doing such a great job leading events that we don’t really need to. We still do events because, well, we like them! And people continue to show up.

But there’s still a lot of work to be done — just with a slightly different focus and target market. Instead of “preaching to the choir,” our slightly-shifted mission is to influence the influencers: national food and beverage writers on the thriving North Carolina beer scene. Attendees of the Governor’s Conference on the importance of drinking local. And perhaps, once again, the state legislature as we seek to gain marketing benefits that the state’s thriving wine industry currently enjoys. It’s only because of the great strides the state’s craft beer industry that we’re able to shift our energies. To land a national feature story on North Carolina beer. To get a visitors bureau to recommend a brewery tour to inquiring tourists. Or, perhaps, to get a mayor or a governor who thinks — possibly for the first time — that the thriving craft beer industry in North Carolina is worth toasting, promoting, and celebrating.

Last night was a whirlwind. Ninety minutes of pouring beer, with little room for networking. But pride was on tap last night: pride for the craft of local beer…and pride for our great state. Even among the three people who asked us for green beer.

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Hi loyal readers!

I’m going to turn my attention away from blog posts to a few other matters, including the upcoming NC Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Winston-Salem, where Pop The Cap will pour Foothills and Natty Greene’s beers for several hundred folks. I also need to crank out the printed North Carolina beer map we’re putting forward in the spring. Plus, I’ve got a couple of other projects and partnerships in the works that are keeping me busy. Oh yea, and the paid job…

So please bear with me as the blog posts slow down for a couple of weeks. I’ll continue to update the PTC calendar with retail and restaurant events, so for those of you who send them…keep ‘em coming! Readers: be sure to check the forum on beerinator.com, which lists many (if not all) of the events I list on PTC. For those of you in the Triangle, check out the Tri-Beer Meetup group, which gets together at area beer schmoozefests. And our links section lists a number of NC breweries (though yoikes I realize I need to update that, too). Most NC breweries now offer an email newsletter subscription.

Thanks! Good stuff on its way!

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A cinema verite documentary in five parts.

Vic is a great sport.

~ Fin ~

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