Best Beer Selection?
This past year, Carolina Beer Temple & Ames St. Marketplace was awarded the Guide to North Carolina’s “Best Bar in North Carolina” award. More recently we’ve been nominated for the Barrel & Bottle Awards by LUXLife magazine and “Best Beer Selection” by the Charlotte Observer. So, what is it we’re doing over here at Carolina Beer Temple to get such accolades?
From the beginning our beer selection has been second-to-none. And as we’ve grown our clout within the industry has become such that we have even more leverage and buying power with world renowned breweries, our distributors and breweries across the state.
St. Bernardus Magnum with Julie Depypere CEO of St. Bernardus Brewery and our awesome Beer Buyer, Sam Hopkins. Plus Ryan Dorosky from D&V International
To begin, our selection - both draft and retail - is always sourced exclusively from independently owned breweries. Our passion for craft goes deeper than anyone else’s and our commitment to independent breweries is unrivaled.
We also have a passion for Belgian ales - as they are world renowned for being some of the best brews on the planet. At Carolina Beer Temple you will always find a Belgian brew on tap.
At Carolina Beer Temple, we are deliberate about building relationships all around us - with our customers, our distributors, our sales reps, local breweries, with our community and beyond. Relationships are a key to our success and through those relationships we’ve built over the past 13+ years, we’re now able to offer a delightful variety of Private Label brews for our customers.
Disciple13 West Coast IPA brewed exclusively for Carolina Beer Temple by Divine Barrel Brewing
At Carolina Beer Temple you will always find “Holy Water,” a light lager brewed by our friends at Petty Thieves Brewing. Also on tap is our house hazy IPA, “Ascension” brewed for us by HopFly Brewing. At the moment we also have the “Keeper Kolsch” brewed by Keepsake Brewing for us.
As well, we offer a large line-up of craft brews brewed for us by Divine Barrel Brewing, including “Congregation Pale Ale,” “Courtyard Crusher” light lager, “Shades of Divinity” Black IPA, “Disciple 13” West Coast IPA, “Biertempletoberfesten” Oktoberfest-style ale, “Collection Plate” Mexican-style lager and many more. When available, each of these fine brews can be found both on draft and in cans to go.
Private Label Brew “12th Anniversary West Coast Style IPA - brewed exclusively for Carolina Beer Temple by Divine Barrel
Then from our friends at international breweries we are incredibly proud to offer “St. Ames Blonde” - a Belgian Blonde Ale brewed exclusively for us by St. Bernardus Brewery in Watou, Belgium! They also brew a “St. Ames Belgian Brown Ale” for us too! Plus, Gilde Brewing, from Hanover, Germany, with a location in Southend Charlotte, brews our Templeweizen Wheat Ale.
St. Ames Belgian Blonde Ale - a Carolina Beer Temple exclusive!
We also take pride in the fact that no one else is doing what we’re doing. One of those things is making frequent trips to other parts of the state to bring back craft brews not available in the Charlotte market. On a recent trip to Asheville, we brought back some brews from Cellarest Beer Project, Zillicoah Beer Co., Diatribe Brewing Co. and more. Often times we have retail available from these breweries and we host special tapping events as well.
Just arriving is a drop from Wilmington Brewing Company - for this one we were going to make the road trip, but they decided to make the trip to Charlotte instead knowing we’d be interested in picking up a bunch of their brews. Look for Tropical Lightning on our shelves now!
At Carolina Beer Temple our tap list changes every day. When a keg goes dry, we replace it with something new. There are so many great craft brews out there, we encourage our customers to try new things. Sure, we have a few of our house beers on all the time, but the majority of our tap list rotates constantly.
Plus, we believe in a balanced tap list - making sure we’re always offering something for everyone. From pilsners to sours, from east coast to west coast IPAs, from brown ales to wheat beers, from Belgian ales to stouts and porters - we strive to ensure you have a great experience on every visit.
Holy Water - brewed exclusively for Carolina Beer Temple by Petty Thieve Brewing
Our retail selection is also second-to-none. It’s not the biggest selection in the area, but it is certainly one of the most carefully curated for our customers who are seeking excellent craft and international offerings you will not find most places. We also are privileged to get many rare drops from our distributors, as our customer base has proven to be supportive of the hard-to-find brews.
In addition to our fine selection of craft brews and international offerings, Carolina Beer Temple is one if the only places where you will find a slow-pull faucet, a Lukr faucet plus a nitro line. The Lukr, for example, allows us to show our love and care for the craft using the right instrument. Founded in the Czech Republic, the Lukr allows us to pour a beer in a traditional way with optimal foam and clarity to allow the true essence of the beer to be exposed.
The faucets at Carolina Beer Temple - no one else is doing what we’re doing
When you visit Carolina Beer Temple also be aware of our extensive singles selection. The majority of our offerings are from world renowned international breweries from Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic and beyond. But several local and national craft brews can also be found from such great breweries at Maine Brewing and Sierra Nevada Brewing.
And let’s not forget, that when you visit Carolina Beer Temple, we strive to put that beer into the best glassware for each style of beer. While some brews are fine for our common Willi Becher glass or Libbey Embassy Pilsner glass, we will pour that St. Bernardus Blonde Ale into properly branded glassware and the Templewiezen into an appropriate Hefe glass! It just makes the beer taste better! (No shaker glasses here)
And about once a month we offer Kolsch Service - where we serve German-style brews the way they do in Cologne, Germany - we keep bringing trays of Kolsch brews to you and your party until you yield!
Kolsch Service - no one else is doing what we’re doing
At Carolina Beer Temple we offer the best selection of craft beers and Belgian ales in the region. No one else is doing what we’re doing, and our promise is that you can find something new and delightful to try on every visit.
Cheers,
Rob Jacik (President & Owner, Carolina Beer Temple)