ACCLAIMED ASHEVILLE BREWERY READIES ITS NEW TAPROOM AT RALEIGH FOOD HALL

The North Carolina beer scene’s New Year’s baby is a big one.

via News & Observer

“The North Carolina beer scene’s New Year’s baby is a big one. Asheville’s Burial Beer Co. is ready to open its Raleigh taproom.

Burial’s taproom will open Saturday in Transfer Co. Food Hall in downtown Raleigh, the brewery announced on social media. The space is called “The Exhibit,” with the brewery seeing it as a small art space, co-founder Jessica Reiser said in an interview. The wall is decorated with blown-up prints of various can art.

The taproom will have a dozen draft lines and serve as a bottle shop for Burial’s many limited release beers, which often are only available in Asheville. The beer will start flowing at 2 p.m. Saturday and continue to 10 p.m. Anticipating a crowd, Burial said thirsty fans can start lining up at noon. Burial Raleigh will hold the same hours Sunday, then close for a few days and reopen Thursday, Jan. 10.

Transfer Co., the second food hall in downtown Raleigh, is in the midst of its soft opening phase, as some vendors start operating. So far, Locals Oyster Bar, Che Empanadas and the Transfer Co. bar are up and running, with Benchwarmers Bagels close behind. Burial’s cozy taproom will be the third piece to open.

Expect the soft opening to last into the spring, as the majority of vendors are still in the middle of construction.

Reiser, her husband, Doug, and co-founder Tim Gormley opened Burial in 2013 in the beer wonderland of Asheville, building it into one of North Carolina’s most acclaimed breweries, catching the attention of the craft beer universe with its lineup of IPAs and sour program. Readers of industry magazine Craft Beer & Brewing named it the fifth best small brewery in the world last year.

Jessica Reiser said the Raleigh location, at just 800 square feet, harkens back to Burial’s beginnings in a 600-square-foot spot in the middle of Asheville. In Raleigh, she said she sees the space as less of a taproom and more of a rare beer bodega.

“We wanted to provide a different type of experience,” Reiser said. “We’ve been distributing for three years and have had such an outpouring of support from beer consumers and other breweries and the retail community. We wanted to bring the unique stuff we’re doing in Asheville to Raleigh. ... We could open 100 taprooms that are all large and all the same, but we want this to be a complementary space.”

Burial is part of the Transfer Co. Food Hall but will have its own entrance from the street. Reiser said to expect regular Saturday can releases, with core beers available throughout the week. Collaboration beers are a major brewing trend, and Burial is collaborating with Brewery Bhavana and Trophy Brewing for a special Raleigh creation. Reiser said that beer will be released next weekend.”

Read the entire News & Observer article here.