Black Brew Tonic moved quickly on the black market in 1905, as bootlegger George L. Smith found out. Running the “blind tiger” liquor business was so worth the risk that he continued selling despite getting run out of towns across North Carolina – 64 times! With a head start on the underground industry, the store operated in dry Charlotte years before national prohibition began in 1920. Many other suppliers continued to illegally brew and distill in Mecklenburg County up until the first ABC stores opened over a decade after the end of prohibition. And still, lawmakers have been loosening alcohol restrictions ever since like the 2005 repeal of a prohibition-era law restricting the sales of beer above 6 percent in alcohol.
Daniel Hartis chronicles this evolution of the region’s beer scene in his new book, Charlotte Beer: A History of Brewing in the Queen City, and illustrates the steps – and missteps – that breweries, restaurants and bottling companies took along the way.
“The most hardcore of beer nerds were unaware of most of the city’s history outside of the current breweries, and even folks who aren’t that into craft beer enjoy learning more about how it fits in with the city’s larger history,” says Hartis about the paperback released last March that’s been well-received by critics like Creative Loafing, which called it “enthusiastic” and “conversational.”
Hartis breaks up the contents into different eras, including pre-prohibition, the temperance movement and the current brewing climate. Readers are introduced to every Charlotte-related brewery and supporting businesses, like a convenience store that began carrying homebrewing supplies during the 33-year brewery drought the city endured after Atlantic Ice and Coal Company closed its Charlotte location in 1956.
Enthusiast groups like the Brew Pub Poets Society, which invited professionals from various fields to gather at Dilworth Brewery during the 1980s, are also profiled. Members were required to write a beer-related poem and read it aloud to become inducted in the group – something Hartis would like to see return today.
“Many members are still around, including founder Jack Dillard, though they haven’t met in some time,” he says. “It was a very cool concept and I would love to see it return today.”
The author
Hartis, who turned 31 this month, spent last December finalizing the manuscript holed up in a Panera Bread, just months after the American Palate division of the History Press approached him to write about local beer history. At the time, he was unsure if there would be enough information to write the book, though clearly he’s uncovered a lot since then.
He thanks his wife Airen for taking care of their children, a two-year-old son and a now 11-month-old daughter, while he worked late nights on the book. They’ve been married almost four years and she shares his interest in craft beer, though he concedes she’s not as obsessive.
“She loves porters, specifically Foothills People’s Porter,” says Hartis, who often dodges the ‘favorite beer’ question himself.
“To me, one of the best things about Charlotte’s beer scene is its diversity,” he says. “I often like to compare The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, which brews with only water, hops, barley and yeast, to Cornelius’ Ass Clown Brewing, which brews with just about anything under the sun from bacon to oysters.”
Outside of beer, Hartis works as a healthcare communications specialist and enjoys listening to copious amounts of audiobooks and podcasts on his commute from Monroe. He hopes to find time this year to write some fiction and wants to start homebrewing, which is something that he’s helped friends do but not by himself.
“I have amassed most of the needed equipment,” he says. “It’s my goal to finally start brewing this year.”
Perhaps he would have started earlier if The Brewing Experience was still around.
“Charlotte was home to North Carolina’s very first brew-on-premise brewery, in which someone would walk you through the process of brewing your own batch of beer,” says Hartis of the concept that closed several years ago.
The former student journalist has come a long way since the start of his relationship with craft beer at UNC Asheville, where he majored in literature and worked a semester at The Blue Banner, their student publication. In 2006, the school paper gave the reporter an assignment to check out three breweries on the Asheville Brews Cruise, a brewery tour that was then in its infancy. The story, titled ‘Brewers Quench Asheville’s Thirst,’ made the front page.
“Mark at the Brews Cruise talked with me about each of the beers we had at the breweries, and I was hooked,” he says, admitting that prior to this his fridge was often stocked with Milwaukee’s Best rather than craft beer. “That was the start of a craft beer journey that still continues to this day.”
Hartis founded CharlotteBeer.com, which won Creative Loafing’s 2012 readers’ pick for Best Local Blog, in January 2011 to keep enthusiasts informed about beer events, dinners and tastings. The idea was to showcase the great work that businesses are doing to “further the great beer here in the Queen City.”
Brian Mister, a UNC Charlotte graduate and marketer for NoDa Brewing Company, believes the site is successful because it can help you figure out anything going on in the Charlotte beer world and sometimes beyond.
“It’s great because it’s non-biased and informative,” says Mister, who describes Hartis as “very humble.”
The blogger intends to keep improving the site and write hyperlocal guides for specific neighborhoods like NoDa and SouthEnd – possibly creating a print version to distribute around town.
Current news
Today, the Charlotte region is home to seven independent microbreweries with another one, curiously named Unknown Brewing Company, to open later this year.
The city of Charlotte has been receptive to these businesses, sponsoring an amendment this year to relieve restrictions on where breweries can open. Currently, zoning ordinances restrict them to industrial zones but Hartis is pleased with how the city is handling the situation.
“The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery has purchased a larger building with more land just down the road from their current brewery, and they plan to move into the new space early next year,” he says, signaling that business owners predict the change will happen.
Craft beer fans may have more to look forward to with a recent N.C. House Bill that would allow grocery stores to carry 64-ounce growlers of beer, which brewers often package their products in. Hartis has been keeping over 3,000 followers informed about the advancing bill on the @CharlotteBeer Twitter page. He continues to write several blog posts a month, and the website remains the central location for local beer news. In addition, there is also a Charlotte Beer Facebook page, which has over 1,300 ‘likes.’
“He’s always keeping people up-to-date on what’s happening when he goes to city meetings,” says Mister. “It keeps craft beer in everyone’s face basically – in a good way.”