Non-alcoholic options at Charlotte breweries and taprooms, ranked
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Sometimes it’s easy to forget in cities like Charlotte, but most Americans don’t drink. One-third of adults don’t drink alcohol at all, and another third have less than a drink a week.
But a desire not to drink alcohol — for whatever reason — doesn’t mean you have to be shut out of Charlotte’s social life. You don’t even have to miss out on the burgeoning brewery scene. Increasingly, breweries are offering some sort of non-alcoholic options — and a lot of them will make you just as much of a participant as your boozy friends.
Here are 8 places you can go, ranked by how high-quality their non-alcoholic options are.
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1) Red Clay Ciderworks
At this cidery, non-alcoholic options aren’t an afterthought at all. Red Clay has the broadest selection of non-alcoholic options, including versions of their premier products.
Just check out this list of options:
- Sparkling cider
- Apple cider
- Pure Intentions nitro coffee
- Lenny Boy Elite Beet kombucha
- Lenny Boy Wake Up Call Kombucha
- Unknown Brewing ginger ale
- Barritts Ginger Beer
- Uncle Scott’s All-Natural Root Beer
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2) Lenny Boy
These are the guys who brew kombucha, a non-alcoholic fermented tea. You can get the full brewery experience here without getting tipsy.
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3) Free Range Brewing
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They get bonus points for an innovative offering: house-made shrub sodas with local ingredients. They also keep cold-brew coffee and kombucha on tap.
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4) Heist
This NoDa spot brews their own root beer and ginger beer.
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5) Craft
They can be hard to find, but non-alcoholic options are plentiful at Craft Tasting Room and Growler Shop. Ask for the Unknown Brewing ginger ale and kombucha bottles from both Lenny Boy and Winston-Salem’s Updog.
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6) Unknown Brewing
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You get massive bonus points if you actually make a non-alcoholic option rather than only resell ones from other companies. So props, Unknown, for brewing up a complex, tasty ginger ale.
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7) Wooden Robot
This brewery generally has a kombucha and nitro cold brew coffee on tap.
8) GoodRoads CiderWorks
You’ll pretty much feel like you’re ordering off the kids’ menu — if you can even read it. Still, fresh-pressed apple juice does sound pretty good. Snacks are crucial, too.
Photo by GoodRoad CiderWorks via Facebook
This isn’t an exhaustive list. Lots of breweries — Sycamore, for example — have non-alcoholic options rotate in.