Resident Culture, Charlotte’s newest brewery, opens Saturday, September 2 in Plaza Midwood

Resident Culture, located on Central Avenue in Plaza Midwood, will open this Saturday, September 2 at noon.

The building has been in owner Phillip McLamb’s family since 1982.

At that time it housed a printing company and McLamb has memories of visiting his dad there and watching the huge paper-cutting machine. More recently, it served as a warehouse logistics business.

“I don’t think anyone ever knew what was here,” McLamb said. “It’s a pretty nondescript building.”

But it’s a nondescript building that means something to him and his family so rather than see it sold for parking deck or apartment development — a common theme along the Central Avenue corridor — McLamb decided to open his own business in it.

He brought on head brewer Chris Tropeano, formerly of Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, California and Independence Brewing in Austin, Texas, to lead the beer program.

Resident Culture joins an already thriving craft brewery community in Charlotte and an up-and-coming scene in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood.

Legion Brewing opened on Commonwealth Avenue in late 2015, Catawba Brewing opened in the nearby Belmont neighborhood in May of this year and Pilot Brewing is targeting a spring 2018 opening just down the street.

Craft beer is an increasingly crowded but far from saturated market in Charlotte.

“There’s a huge demand [for craft beer] and the city can support that,” said Tropeano. “We’re happy we got in when we did.”

The brewery will open on Saturday, September 2 with a dozen beers on tap.

Free Skate (6.4%), a citrusy East Coast style IPA, and RE-UP (5.3%), a Keller-style pilsner, are already runaway favorites.

Tropeano expects the IPAs to be predictably popular but is really pushing for pilsner notoriety. “Pilsners are tricky because they don’t have quite the reputation of an IPA,” he said. “I’m going to work really hard to change people’s opinions.”

He’ll also doing a lot of funky, barrel-aged wild beers using yeast from flowers and tree bark collected in the neighborhood. “The idea is to create a sense of space,” he said of using locally-sourced yeast.

Resident Culture is also the first brewery in Charlotte with a coolship, an open-air tank used for spontaneous fermentation to create interesting and sometimes unpredictable flavors.

Here’s a look at the full tap lineup for opening day:

Any beers labeled in tanks 1-5 are served directly from the tank, which is a unique offering in Charlotte that beerheads will appreciate.

The brewery totals 14,000 square feet of production, tap room, patio and beer garden space.

They’ve created a nice indoor/outdoor flow with large garage doors, a spacious covered patio and beer garden on the lawn.

Inside, the industrial space is warmed up with custom finishes from repurposed materials. The bar, created by Fine Grit, is made of reclaimed brick and 100-year-old walnut salvaged from a train stations. And all of the picnic tables were handmade with salvaged wood by Tropeano and his dad Sarino Tropeano.

Resident Culture will be open Tuesday – Thursday 3-10 p.m., Friday 3-11 p.m., Saturday noon-11 p.m. and Sunday noon-8 p.m.

Find it at 2101 Central Avenue, Charlotte NC 28205.

The grand opening kicks off at noon on Saturday, September 2 with food trucks and a few special surprises.

Can’t wait until then? They’ll be hosting #instabeerupclt, a monthly beer-centric networking mixer, from 6-10 p.m. on Thursday, August 31.