By Brian Beauchemin

Everyone I speak with is thoroughly enjoying these cooler temperatures and hopeful early start to fall. It’s almost as if our local brewers knew this weather was coming a bit early, as this month’s releases include nearly every fall spice you can imagine. Add pumpkins, sweet potatoes, pecans, and coffee, and you have an autumn-harvest liquid buffet. Fresh hops from Michigan and a couple classic Belgian and German beers make for an enjoyable, well-rounded month of beers. Unless otherwise noted, all beers are already available in taprooms and/or local retail establishments.  

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Birdsong Brewing

Stick Season is a 5.5% ABV Extra Special Bitter (ESB) on draft only in the taproom. The ESB offers notes of biscuit, toffee, and marmalade in tandem with earthy/floral hops. The medium bodied brew is smooth and balanced.

Featuring tastes of butterscotch and toffee, State of Grace is a dark red ale with subtle hop additions to balance out the sweetness. The 5.0% ABV ale provides a light mouthfeel and releases Sept. 25 in the taproom and Sept. 29 in distribution. 

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Free Range Brewing

Jenny Bought a Farm is a 5.5% ABV classic saison. The owners’ Grandma Jenny was quite the matriarch, strong-willed and feisty. The saison is a celebration of her life and family ties to Eastern Carolina farming. This farmhouse ale utilizes North Carolina grown malt and is made with 99% local ingredients. The flavor is herbal, earthy, clean, and crisp. Get ready for a crisp, down-to-earth, all-day drinker, with a bright floral-herbal nose. 

A light lime lager, CAMP LIME is an easy drinking 4% ABV brew zested up with lime and a hint of sea salt. North Carolina heirloom corn adds a subtle complexity to this very sessionable beer. Brewed with 99% local ingredients, expect light lime zest in tandem with a clean, bubbly crispness.

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Olde Mecklenburg Brewing  

After a successful introduction last year, Blackjack returns for round two this Fall. The 5.6% ABV schwarz-bier provides notes of coffee, chocolate, and pumpernickel bread, balanced by hints of cherry licorice and cola caramel. On draft at both taprooms and available in growlers.

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Pilot Brewing

Featuring locally roasted coffee beans from Giddy Goat Coffee Roasters, Cafe Latte Stout is a 5.5% ABV sweet stout brewed with lactose sugar and Ecuadorian cocoa nibs. This batch features Costa Rica Lite beans, which exude sweet notes of vanilla and cherry to round out the stout’s sweetness.

Huckleberry Cheesecake Gose is a German-style wheat ale brewed with a hint of sea salt and coriander for a crisp, refreshing base. It’s then blended with real huckleberry purée and finished with a touch of cheesecake flavor giving it a smooth, slightly sweet finish that tastes like a fall dessert in a pint. The 4.2% ABV ale releases on draught and in cans September 12.

In honor of the brewery’s annual Oktoberfest celebration, Oktoberfest Marzen releases September 26. A German-style 6% ABV amber lager with a clean, toasty, bready malt flavor and a dry finish that encourages a Prost.

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Sycamore Brewing

For fans of spiced ciders, Apple Pie Cider is everything you expect in a fall seasonal cider – semi-sweet, warming, pleasantly spiced, and satisfying to drink. Wildflower honey is added to the brewery’s dry cider in tandem with hand-ground whole spices including Saigon and Ceylon cinnamon, Jamaican allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and vanilla. Sweetness and floral notes from the honey pair together balancing the spicy notes. Spicing in the 5.1% ABV cider tends more to the cinnamon / clove end, with all the other spices playing supporting roles.

Fest Bier is a 5.8% ABV traditional festbier, the lighter cousin of the darker Märzen lagers also associated with Fall. This lager was brewed entirely with Riverbend Malt House Pilsner, Munich, and Vienna providing a golden-light bronze color. A light malt sweetness presents as toffee, caramel, toasted, and doughy bread in tandem with light floral hops. The medium-light body finishes dry and crisp.

Sticking with the fall-spiced theme, Pumpkin Latte Blonde is a 5.8% ABV spiced coffee blonde ale. A slightly sweet, hop-neutral blonde ale base adds the brewery’s house-roasted cold brew coffee, pumpkin pie spices, and bourbon Madagascar vanilla. The traditional pumpkin pie spices, vanilla, and sweetness of the base beer are balanced quite nicely by the roasty, bitter dark chocolate, caramel, brown sugar and slightly fruity notes of the cold brew.

Wet Wet IPA is a 7.2%.ABV fresh hop IPA. “Wet-hopped IPAs” utilize freshly picked hops, straight off the vine with no processing and still damp when used at the brewery. Freshly picked Michigan-grown Chinook, Vista, and Cashmere hops were utilized both in the boil and for dry hopping to provide a bouquet of fresh hop flavor. Expect a lightly hazy beer with a complex array of flavors including grassy, pine, resinous, dank, melon, pineapple, floral, lemon citrus, and lighter earthy / herbal background notes. 

Pecan Lager is a crisp, malty, nutty brew with a Southern twist. The 6.1% ABV lager should be available by the end of September. The Märzen / amber lager utilizes malted barley grown in the Southeast and malted by Riverbend in Asheville, North Carolina. A subtle dash of pecan smoked malt was used in the brewing process to enhance the nutty flavors.  The beer was conditioned on Georgia-grown pecans and cold-cellared for two months to help smooth out the flavors. Vanilla was added to enhance the pecan flavors and lend a familiar butter pecan vibe to the beer.

Wet Hopped Pils is a 5.5% ABV Italian-style pilsner dry hopped with freshly harvested Michigan-grown Saaz hops. A crisp, clean pilsner with fresh, grassy, and floral hop flavors and subtle nuances of tropical fruit and citrus. The hop character in this beer isn’t going to slap you in the face like an IPA; it’s balanced with the clean malt character.

Sour Berry Saison is a classic Belgian saison but with a twist. The 6.4% ABV saison features traditional floral, clove-like, spicy, and fruity yeast-derived flavors, augmented with the addition of real strawberries, raspberries, and soursop. 

Belgian Tripel is a true-to-style, unadulterated Belgian tripel. Cleanly constructed from locally produced barley, this bold brew derives most of its flavor from the unique yeast used in the fermentation process.  9.7% ABV and full of unique flavor vibes that draw you back in for another sip.

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Town Brewing

Sweet Carolina Pie is a 5.5% ABV amber ale brewed with sweet potatoes, vanilla, and nutmeg. Lightly sweet without being overwhelming, this brew is smooth and easy to enjoy. Notes of nutmeg and vanilla blend with the malt character to create a flavor that brings to mind your grandma’s homemade sweet potato pie.

Releasing Sept. 13 at the brewery’s Blocktoberfest event, ReNew Brew Marzen Lager is brewed with Epiphany Craft Malt. The 5.8 % ABV lager is malty, rich, toasty, and bready with a clean, dry finish. Utilizing recycled waste water for conservation and reducing environmental impact, the beer was brewed in collaboration with Charlotte Water and Xylem Water Solutions.

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Triple C Brewing

Baby Maker is back and available on draft and in cans. The 8.5% ABV imperial IPA utilizes copious amounts of dank hops in tandem with a sturdy malt backbone. Cascade, Simcoe, Centennial, and Columbus utilized in two different dry hop additions provide intense fruitiness with spicy grapefruit hop aromas and flavors with low perceived bitterness. 

A 4.9% ABV honey wheat ale, Comb Over is draft only. The ale is brewed with orange blossom honey for a smooth, floral lift and a bright citrus edge. Soft wheat malts keep it light on the palate, while the honey adds just enough depth without a sweetness overload. Balanced, refreshing, and brewed for easy sipping.  

Available only on draft beginning Sept. 22, Sensory Overload is a 6.9% ABV West Coast IPA. Brewed with local pilsner and wheat malts and a touch of flaked wheat to provide a vehicle for huge hopping. Aromas of passionfruit, ripe orange, peach candy, and pineapple leap from the glass thanks to over 4 pounds per barrel of dry hops. 

Flodown Festbier is a 5.6% ABV traditional festbier lager. Flodown pours a deep golden hue with a creamy white head and a clean, malty backbone. Notes of fresh-baked bread, subtle honey, and an herbal touch thanks to whole cone German Tradition hops. Release Sept. 27.