North Raleigh will get a new taproom from a Durham brewery with national acclaim
Sometimes connected by a hyphen, Raleigh and Durham will soon share something other than an airport.
The Durham brewery Barrel Culture is opening a second Triangle taproom and has tapped North Raleigh, making it the first local brewery pouring its beer in both cities. Co-owned by married couple Caroline and Ethan Barbee with Jared Strauss, Barrel Culture will open a new 2,000-square-foot taproom at 13100 Falls of the Neuse Road, in the same development as celebrity chef Kenny Gilbert is building his new restaurant Cut & Gather. The owners expect the new Wakefield taproom to open this spring, possibly as soon as early March.
“We didn’t limit ourselves to any location,” Ethan Barbee said in a phone interview. “We were shown this building and told about the restaurant next door and thought we could combine craft beer and craft food.”
Founded as a small South Durham brewery in 2017, Barrel Culture’s reputation overshadows its size, landing on Beer Advocate’s list of America’s top 50 new breweries the year it opened.
“That was so exciting,” said Caroline Barbee. “We had just opened, and the national publicity we were getting helped us get invited to some of the best beer festivals throughout the nation.”
Sour versus clean beers
As the name implies, Barrel Culture started out specializing in sour and wild ales, beers often aged and conditioned with strains of yeast and bacteria, which develop complex flavors. But because of the unpredictable nature of wild beers and a tendency to take on a life of their own, they have to be kept separate from so-called clean beers. Otherwise everything can start to turn sour.
Barrel Culture has put nearly 100 miles between their sour and clean beers, which are produced in its satellite brewery in Rocky Mount’s Rocky Mount Mills development, which a number of North Carolina breweries call home.
Led by head brewer Paul Wasmund, Barrel Culture produced only sour beers for its first two years of existence, but recently expanded its offerings, adding stouts, IPAs and lagers.
“All of us here, we like to drink a lot of different beers,” Ethan Barbee said. “Sours and stouts and lagers, we want to do everything.”
The Wakefield taproom will have 14 beer lines pouring Barrel Culture offerings, plus wine and cider. In the center of the bar will be two 24-foot-long tables, which the Barbees hope foster a sense of beer-loving community in the taproom. There will also be a 700-square-foot patio out back. There won’t be any brewing done at the Wakefield location, only ready-to-drink beers.
“We’re from North Raleigh, we’re familiar with the area ... so many people live out there and and they’re looking for a cool space to hang out close to home.”
Satellite taprooms
Satellite taprooms have become the preferred way to grow for many craft breweries, choosing to sell more beer directly to drinkers instead of ramping up production and jockeying for shelf space in grocery stores or bottle shops. Barrel Culture joins a number of Triangle breweries in adding multiple locations, including Trophy, Lynnwood and Lonerider in Raleigh, Fullsteam Brewery in Durham and Chapel Hill and Raleigh’s Gizmo Brew Works, which recently became the first Trans-Triangle brewery when it opened its Chapel Hill location in the old Rathskeller space.
As Barrel Culture adds clean beer offerings, Caroline Barbee said the brewery will keep a healthy mix of sour and clean options in the rotation. Since the beginning, the brewery has been bottling its sour varieties, but since joining Rocky Mount Mills, Barrel Culture now has access to a canning line and has been putting some of its beers in 16 ounce tallboy cans.
While they declined to talk specifics, the Barbees said Barrel Culture has some special releases planed for its Wakefield grand opening this spring.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 3:34 PM.
