Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Dream Brew Store

As I've mentioned on this blog before, I'm a high school teacher. I love my job and have no plans to change it. Like most homebrewers I've had dreams of making Bearded Brewing a full blown brewery or brewpub some day. But the more I've grown as a homebrewer, enjoyed the blogging community to share my ideas and brews, the happier I've been where I'm at. In fact watching my friend Derek @ Beer This! start his journey from working in the financial industry to the brewing world has helped me realize the reality of the brewing industry. Low wages, limited creativity (compared to homebrewing) and just a hell of a lot of risk and hard work.
But every once and awhile you come across something that makes you rethink that dream. For my wife and I that came from a very unique experience we had on vacation of the southern coast of North Carolina. Once on the island of Emerald Isle, we came across and advertisement for a Harrika's Brew Haus, Art Bar and Eclectic Gifts on the main land in nearby Swansboro. What we found was an actual house. A really amazing spot that was unique and the kind of place I'd love to own someday.
Harrika's is an actual house, packed to the gills with single bottles of beer arranged by style. Every room is jamed from floor to ceiling with metal shelving, including the closets. Where there isn't beer, there are jars of tea or unique works of art and pottery. There are four beers on tap (apparently North Carolina laws allow beers on-tap in off-sale beer stores). There was a small room that contained a tiny bar, along with bar stools along a single shelf that ran the length of the room. As you continued around back, there was a backyard complete with a patio full of tables and chairs, a small stage and picnic tables. Its hard to describe the vibe, it just was such a unique location, a place to go pick up some great craft beer, maybe have a draft while reading a book on the patio. It felt like your comfy neighborhood coffee shop, only for craft beer. Hopefully the pics can do it justice:




Now that I'm back, I intend to get to some updates on some brewing I've done and some coming up.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer


8 comments:

James said...

Sweet. I thought I'd been to all of the beer related hot spots (Weeping Radish, OBX Brewing Station, Corolla Brew pub) the Outer Banks had to offer on our past ventures out there. I'm actually headed to the outer banks again in a couple weeks and will put this on our itinerary.

Keith said...

That looks amazing. I wonder if they sleep in a bedroom upstairs

Hunington said...

Pathetically, I can name almost every beer I see on those racks by just seeing the general color of the labels. Zeesh!

beckel said...

Friggin awesome. We need more relaxed beer laws in MN so we can have sweet places like this. Glad you had fun. Cheers mate!

The Bearded Brewer said...

I should mention that I only posted one of the rooms full of beer, the other rooms were more packed than the one in the picture. Not sure where they sleep, but the owner said she's running out of space for beer.
-Beckel, totally agree, we have coffee shops a plenty in Minneapolis that have similar set ups and vibes. If only the laws allowed for such a relaxed drinking environment!

Chillindamos said...

Seems the best of both worlds. You can have your brewery and drink it too. Selling "tea" is a good front for a speakeasy pub, if ya ask me!

Aaron said...

What a cool place, did you bring any interesting beers back home?

Anonymous said...

Hello people! I have been looking for [url=http://www.streaamy.com]Free Spyware Removal Software[/url] online and used the following search terms [url=http://www.streaamy.com/spyware-removal-tool]Spyware Removal Tool[/url] [url=http://www.streaamy.com/best-spyware-removal]Best Spyware Removal[/url] [url=http://www.streaamy.com/free-spyware-removal-tool]Free Spyware Removal Tool[/url] [url=http://www.streaamy.com/best-free-spyware-removal]Best Free Spyware Removal[/url] [url=http://www.streaamy.com/spyware-removal-free]Spyware Removal Free[/url] , but did not find anything free. Can you help me?