Raleigh "Beer Week" and "Restaurant Week" (Durham: home, bars)

[NewUser]

Next week is the Raleigh Beer Week and Restaurant week. If you are around there are some good events to check out.

Inaugural Raleigh Beer Week Kicks Off Next Week | New Raleigh

Raleigh Beer Week

All week long Raleigh Beer Week Venues will be pouring rare and amazing brews! Landmark will be the home to Allagash rare and special brews, The Borough will be dipping into the private stash for some rarities from Founders Brewing. Foundation will be reaching deep for some rare and bourbon barrel aged libations! All of the venues will be pouring a collection of oddities and one- off's from New Belgium.

Just look at this schedule!

Monday, August 30
6:00 pm - Aviator Cask Event at The Borough: Inaugural Raleigh Beer Week kicks off with Mayor Meeker tapping the Aviator cask of Dark Horizon Black IPA infused with jalapeno. They’ll also be breaking out a case of a very special brew from Founders that they’ve been hanging onto for a while. I hear the Carolina Rollergirls will be there too.

9:00 pm - Bells Cask Event at Landmark Tavern: It’s a night of ‘Cask Ale Appreciation’ with a cask of Bells Two Hearted Ale and Julie Johnson from All About Beer Magazine.

Tuesday, August 31
7:00 pm - Beer Dinner at the Busy Bee Cafe: Join Brian Ewing of 12 % Imports and the boys at the Busy Bee to celebrate the beers of De Dochter Van de Korenaar. 5 beers, 5 courses, $50. With events like this, it’s no wonder Draft Magazine named the Bee one of the Top 150 Beer Bars in the country.

9:00 pm - Beer Cocktails at Foundation: Join Drew Shepherd and crew for a night of beer cocktails. All North Carolina brews and domestic spirits, mixed by the expert Foundation bartenders.

Wednesday, September 1
7:00 pm - Brooklyn Beer Dinner at The Flying Saucer: Join Steve Hindy, co-founder of Brooklyn Brewery, for a night of food & brews. Enjoy a 5 course dinner paired with 5 beers. Also in attendance is Daniel Bradford from All About Beer magazine. Tickets are $40 if you’re a UFO member, $50 if you’re not, and can be purchased at the Saucer.

9:00 pm - Cask Night at The Borough: Stop by to enjoy a cask of dry hopped French Broad’s ESB. The Borough is working in conjunction with The Flying Saucer’s beer dinner that Wednesday. Every ticket to the Saucer’s beer dinner will include a pint of the ESB, so save your tickets and bring them to The Borough.

Thursday, September 2
7:00 pm - Brewers Forum at the Busy Bee: Join Spike Buckowski from Terrapin Brewing Co, Sean Wilson from Fullsteam, and others for a panel discussion on brewing and the beer industry.

9:00 pm - Ballast Point Cask Night at The Flying Saucer: The folks at the Saucer will be tapping an uber rare cask of Black Marlin Porter with cocoa nibs.

Friday, September 3
6:00 pm - Cask at the Landmark Tavern: Join Darren Quinlan of Coney Island/ Schmaltz Brewing to tap a special brew.

[meanieme]

actually I believe this week is Restaurant Week and next week is Beer Week only

[T|K]

Doesn't seem like beer week has much local breweries involved?

[Greeny]

Originally Posted by T|K

Doesn't seem like beer week has much local breweries involved?

Very disappointing. With the increasing number of great local breweries, why would a Raleigh beer week not be mostly (if not exclusively) local? Save all of this other stuff for the week of a World Beer Festival.

[NewUser]

Originally Posted by Greeny

Very disappointing. With the increasing number of great local breweries, why would a Raleigh beer week not be mostly (if not exclusively) local? Save all of this other stuff for the week of a World Beer Festival.

All right everyone. . . calm down. Remember who they are marketing this to. . . uber beer geeks. . . . not Miller Lite couch potatoes.

In my opinion, Aviator is the only "we brew some wierd stuff" brewery in the Triangle. CBC and Lonerider make great beer, but their offerings are fairly pedestrian. Big Boss and Triangle tend to go big and Belgian. FullSteam has their "local ingredients" slant on brewing, but they are barely up and running.

If you read a little closer, you can see that Triangle and NC beers get some play nearly every day.

Monday: Cask conditioned - Black IPA - jalapenos. Need I say more about Aviator. Also, Julie Johnson of "All About Beer" - A Raleigh based beer magazine, will be speaking.

Tuesday: Beer cocktails featuring NC brews. I'm sure that there will be some Triangle breweries featured here.

Wednesday: Daniel Bradford - also of "All About Beer" magazine - will be talking. A cask-conditioned ESB from French Broad (an NC brewery) will be served.

Thursday: Sean Wilson from FullSteam and Sumit Vohra of Lonerider will be on a panel answering questions about beer.

Friday: OK. . . . nothing mentioned here for NC or Triangle breweries.

I'll see if I can find out more. Maybe these blogs are only touching on part of what will be happening.

[Fretless]

This is not Raleigh Beer Week whatsoever. This is Busy Bee's Beer Week. If you look at the line-up carefully note there isn't a single Raleigh-based brewery in it, with the exception of Sumit from LoneRider but even his brewery doesn't have an exclusive event involving their beer, which is what this week is supposed to be about. The breweries are either outside the Triangle or from another state altogether.

If you are highlighting the amazing talent in Raleigh then you organize the event to highlight that talent. And you do it in advance so you can actually plan REAL casks for the "cask nights". Monday's casks were not casks. They were simply kegs served on their sides with no yeast sediment and artificial carbonation. You can't put a cask on the bar the night you tap it and pour a clear beer. Poor planning and advertisement. Not to mention the misrepresentation of both cask ale and Raleigh-based breweries.

To me, this yet another event that is exploiting beer culture so someone can turn a buck. Bad form Busy Bee...

[NewUser]

Originally Posted by Fretless

If you look at the line-up carefully note there isn't a single Raleigh-based brewery in it. . . . . . which is what this week is supposed to be about. The breweries are either outside the Triangle or from another state altogether.

While Aviator is not technically in Raleigh (Fuquay) and neither is FullSteam (Durham) I think that they are most definitely within the Triangle.

Also, this event was never billed as a "Breweries From Raleigh" week. If you notice, it says Raleigh Beer Week is "A week-long celebration of Craft beer, both local and imported, brought to you by people who care about what's in that bottle." Their definition of "local" can be Raleigh, the Triangle, or even NC.

And finally, there were other local beer businesses involved, including the Borough, Landmark, Foundation, and Flying Saucer. If Busy Bee stepped up to the plate and spearheaded the event, then I'll thank them before I criticize them.

As for the "cask ale" tapping. . . . you are correct there. Just because you serve a beer on its side, that doesn't make it a cask ale. But I was not there to witness and haven't asked Mark for details.

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

Originally Posted by NewUser

Also, this event was never billed as a "Breweries From Raleigh" week. If you notice, it says Raleigh Beer Week is "A week-long celebration of Craft beer, both local and imported, brought to you by people who care about what's in that bottle." Their definition of "local" can be Raleigh, the Triangle, or even NC.

And finally, there were other local beer businesses involved, including the Borough, Landmark, Foundation, and Flying Saucer. If Busy Bee stepped up to the plate and spearheaded the event, then I'll thank them before I criticize them.

I'm with NewUser on this one. Not sure why others are being so critical of the event.

[Jenaten]

Hmmmm... A celebration of beer. Whether it's from Raleigh or out-of-state, whether it's poured from a cask or a keg, whether it's unusual or pedestrian, what's to criticize? It's beer!

[NewUser]

Originally Posted by Jenaten

Hmmmm... A celebration of beer. Whether it's from Raleigh or out-of-state, whether it's poured from a cask or a keg, whether it's unusual or pedestrian, what's to criticize? It's beer!