Bar owners hone their 'craft,' one delicious micro brew at a time
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on November 19, 2017 3:05 AM
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Zak Fein, one of the owners of Goldsboro Brew Works, discusses how he sometimes steps customers up through different levels of bitterness in flight samples until they work their way up to an IPA. IPAs are traditionally more hop-forward, making them bitter, and are brewed with a wide variety of different ingredients to impart flavors from fruity to spicy.
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The owner of Tobacco and Hops, Dustin Pike, third from left, recently expanded his business to include a bar and lounge inside the cigar store. A ribbon cutting for the occasion was held Nov. 11. He keeps only North Carolina beers on tap.
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Brothers John, left, and Sam Hodge opened up Well Travelled Beer in downtown Goldsboro in the summer of 2016.
Going out for a beer used to mean swilling down some mass-produced, barely-flavored, carbonated beverage that was lightly alcoholic and close to water.
But these are the days of craft beer -- micro brews, not macro brews.
Getting a beer is an experience -- if you know where to go.
How about a sour beer with the tang and zip of key lime pie? OK.
You want a dark stout with coffee, cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and pasilla peppers in it? Sure.
Maybe even a hoppy, habanero india pale ale? It's weird, but yes.
A Michelob Ultra? No. Not a chance. That's not a craft beer. Go home.
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The world of craft beer has taken over North Carolina, with more than 230 breweries and brewpubs across the state.
Breweries are heavily concentrated in the mountain region of the state, and in the piedmont region, with some at the coast and in Raleigh.
There are none in Goldsboro or Wayne County.
But there are several spots to go and sip on the flavor of North Carolina, as well as many other craft breweries across the nation.
Tobacco and Hops, owned by Dustin Pike, recently expanded its operation to include a bar and lounge area.
The bar opened Oct. 27, with a ribbon cutting held on Nov. 11. High back chairs and couches line the floor for patrons to kick back and relax in while they partake of fine vices.
"It's still a cigar lounge first, so it's very different than a bar," Pike said. "It's very cozy and relaxing. It's an atmosphere where someone can sit and smoke. At the same time, there's a growing trend of pairing cigars and beers since craft beer is blowing up everywhere."
Pike said the plan was always to expand the store to include a bar -- hence the name of the shop -- and he is happy to have gotten that goal accomplished in the first year the store opened. The cigar-selling portion opened in February.
He serves craft beer, and can pair it with a cigar of his recommendation or your choice, depending on what you order. It takes a depth of knowledge on both subjects, of which Pike has plenty.
His taps -- for which cigar tubes serve as handles -- pour North Carolina beer exclusively.
"North Carolina beers were always going to be a focus for me," Pike said. "I don't have a lot of taps, so it's something I can do pretty easily."
With the bar came new hours, which are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.
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Three other craft beer spots now call Goldsboro home also -- Brewmasters, Well Travelled Beer and Goldsboro Brew Works.
Both Well Travelled Beer and Brewmasters sell craft beer by the bottle, though Brewmasters also sells food.
Well Travelled Beer was the first craft beer joint to open up in the city, letting the beer flow in the summer of 2016.
The shop has more than 650 different kinds of craft beer, sake and wine on its shelves and is open every day of the week but Monday, with limited hours on Sunday.
It is owned by brothers John and Sam Hodge, and quickly emerged as a community staple.
The store and bar opened when the two brothers teamed up after John got out of the United States Navy. Sam said he'd been wanting to open a craft beer spot for the past 10 years and his dream is now a reality for the brothers.
"Being his brother and just transitioning out of the military, I figured why not try and do something on my own instead of doing something for someone else," John said. "Sam asked me to come along with him on it, and I don't regret it at all. I enjoy every moment of it."
John said the business does travel to smaller breweries around the state to secure harder-to-come-by craft beers, some of which are not carried by large distributors. If a beer is made out of state, beer stores and bars must order it through a distributor or else they are not allowed to sell it.
To choose what beers to have on tap or in the store -- North Carolina or otherwise -- they employ all devices.
"We just keep our ear to the ground," Sam said. "People talk about what they're looking for, and we kind of know what styles are popular in the area, and representatives from the company will tell us if something is new that's worth checking out, and we go on personal taste, too."
The store doesn't just sell beer, either.
The brothers host various events, such as a movie night one Sunday a month, yoga every Sunday morning where $5 for each person who shows up is donated to a charity, and more.
"It's not all about the beer, it's more about the community and getting people together and making friends," John said. "We try to do these events to do people together. We meet so many cool people we might as well try and bring them closer to each other."
If someone thinks craft beer isn't for them, they probably just haven't found the right one yet. There's an entire world of different craft brews to try, with some beers being very off the wall and intense, and others being interestingly flavored, yet more easily palatable.
Both Well Travelled Beer and Goldsboro Brew Works make it a point to introduce non-craft beer drinkers to micro brews they'll enjoy based off the beer they already drink.
Once somebody's palate gets accustomed to the different flavors of craft beer, that's when the fun begins.
"It's always been about trying something new, seeing how far someone can take something, or just the unique approach to it," Sam said. "The big guys are making beers that everyone can drink, but craft beer is making stuff that not everyone can always drink. There's a lot of experimentation, and that's the fun part of it, is all the experimenting people do with craft beer."
Sam added he felt like Well Travelled Beer has become a spot where everyone of any background and all ages can come join the fun -- even dogs.
"I feel like Goldsboro has needed a place like that," Sam said. "You don't have to drink beer to come in and take part in anything. We just like to have fun, and we want to have fun with our space beyond serving beer. We don't want to just serve beer, we want to make it personal."
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Goldsboro Brew Works, another dog and family friendly establishment, is owned by Carson Clark and Zak Fein. The business opened shortly after Well Travelled Beer in November 2016.
Clark and Fein started the planning process a year and a half before they got out of the United States Air Force -- Fein got out in April 2016, and Clark got out in May 2016.
They immediately began construction and started pouring beer from their 30 taps on Nov. 25, 2016. Their one-year anniversary in business is right around the corner. They are open every day of the week.
Both men had brewed beer at home in the past before deciding to open the bar and homebrew supply store. Clark said the original plans were for a brewery, but it was scaled back to be a taproom and homebrew supply store.
Craft beer is largely different from well-known domestic beers because of how it is made, and the care put into each batch.
"Your macro beers all have a ton of adjuncts -- rice, corn, all stuff that shouldn't really be in beer -- and that's kind of their thing, is make as much beer as fast as possible and then by speeding up the process of brewing a lot of byproducts in the beer get into the final product," Clark said.
Some micro brews do try and compete with macro beers, even though they are largely different. Fein said the bar keeps something on tap at all times that will compete with the mass-produced beers, while still tasting better.
"I've never tasted a micro beer that tastes like a macro," Fein said. "There are competitors -- New Belgium Dayblazer is a direct Budwesier competitor -- it's not even a lager, but it tastes easy, crushable -- it tastes like a light beer should."
Both the Hodge brothers and Fein and Clark said the community response to opening their doors was overwhelmingly positive.
People around Wayne County were already drinking craft beer all over North Carolina, but they were going out of town to get it.
Now, with the several craft beer spots open locally, they can get a taste of wherever -- and whatever --in the time of a short drive.
"When you come into places like this, a) don't expect everybody to have their pinky up, because it's not that way, and b) have an open mind about what you want to try," Clark said. "Don't come in and just think Michelob Ultra, or Bud Light, or Yuengling -- don't think that whatever it is that is your favorite beer is the only beer worth drinking. Come in and try some stuff, because I guarantee -- it happens every time people come in here -- try a couple things, and as long as you have an open mind, you'll find this whole new world of beer."