Charlotte is a beer town. With more than 30 breweries and a raft of top national and international awards, the Queen City has firmly established itself as a craft beer destination in the Southeast. Leading the charge have been the “core four”: Olde Mecklenburg, NoDa, Birdsong, and Triple C. They ushered in the city’s craft renaissance roughly a decade ago and have numerous Great American Beer Festival and European Beer Star gold medals to their names.

While these and other larger breweries (which also include Heist, Legion, Sycamore and Wooden Robot, among others) are the ones that see crowded taprooms and full taplists on a continuous basis, a new trend has emerged recently with smaller, more targeted craft beer locations.

In just the last year, several “pocket” breweries have opened in neighborhoods that skew more residential rather than the high-traffic retail areas in the Queen City like NoDa, South End, Plaza Midwood and LoSo.

“You look at the pros and cons of it,” Vaulted Oak Brewing co-owner Kiel Arrington says. “Obviously we don’t have the foot traffic compared to the bigger breweries, but we had a vision of where we wanted to be, plus we didn’t want to fight other friends we knew for market share.”

East Charlotte had a minimal local craft footprint two years ago, but it’s slowly gaining ground with the addition of Vaulted Oak (which opened in May) and Edge City Brewery (April 2020). These pocket breweries have a more family feel—smaller in size (for scale, Olde Mecklenburg brews roughly 20,500 barrels a year while Edge City and Vaulted Oak will likely brew no more than 850 barrels this year) as well as cost and geographical reach, with patrons coming from close by rather than traveling to it as a destination site.

“We were very familiar with the neighborhood and knew our branding voice wanted to be family-friendly and really inclusive” says Arrington, who himself lives just a half-mile away from Vaulted Oak, which is housed in a building that formerly was a bank. “And it’s cool to be in a location that’s unique and not necessarily where everyone else is, in a refurbished building as opposed to a new, ground-up build.”

East Charlotte's Vaulted Oak Brewing is housed in a former bank (Rémy Thurston)

A couple years ago when searching for a brewery site, John Thomas of Edge City happened upon an area of east Charlotte where every week residents would get together for “Thursdays Live,” which featured live music, art exhibits and food tastings. Part of that location now serves as Edge City’s patio space.

“Going there and seeing that big community; that really sealed the deal for us,” says Thomas, a co-owner of the brewery. “It caught our eye where we saw a need back then after meeting with residents and neighborhood advocates.

“And it’s those same familiar faces now coming through our doors, whether they walk, bike, or push a stroller with their kid in. It’s really great and neat to see that people are so close to us.”

John Thomas of Edge City Brewery (Rémy Thurston)

The community vibe for the smaller breweries extends far beyond the beer. It’s almost certain when you visit any brewery that a food truck will be on site but go to Vaulted Oak on a given weekend and you’ll not only see food for sale but a full “Brewing Market” featuring art, clothing, and various other vendors from nearby areas.

“That’s one pillar we always wanted to back,” Arrington says. “Each and every day, what can we do to involve our community, from our neighbors up and down Monroe Road [where Vaulted Oak is located] throughout all of east Charlotte. That’s our mentality. Even the guy who cuts our grass—he stopped in one day saying he was trying to start up his business and that’s something we can appreciate. At the end of the day it just makes you feel better knowing you’re helping the area where you serve.”

Kiel Arrington of Vaulted Oak Brewing (Rémy Thurston)

With the continued growth and development of Charlotte, the craft beer boom shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Expansion is already in the works for established breweries, with additional locations for Legion, Olde Mecklenburg, Resident Culture, and others planned in the coming years.

In addition, expect a growing number of smaller breweries, especially in the West End, which is primed to be the next brewery development hot spot. Midnight Mulligan just announced this summer that it will join nearby Summit Seltzer on blocks formerly dominated by industrial buildings.

It’s a combination that should keep Charlotte a leading city associated with craft beer in the years ahead and continue to draw in new customers, both local and visitors.

“You’ll always have the breweries in bigger neighborhoods, the destination breweries if you will,” Arrington says. “And it will be up to us, the ‘outskirt’ breweries to be creative and do different events and have more involvement with small businesses at our space which will drive customers.

“I think it will be a space where everyone can thrive . . . on a Saturday late morning your typical customer may head out somewhere outside of where they live and do brunch or try a new place. But then later that day, that person will likely be inclined to come back closer to home, stay there for the evening, and enjoy what their neighborhood brewery has to offer.”