NCRanger
Bettman's Enemy
New Belgium had been distributed in NC for a decade before they opened the brewery in Asheville. They picked NC Bc it goes back and forth as their 3rd/4th largest state, sales wise and the #1 on the east coast.
I will agree that the quality seemed to go down when they started brewing everything we get out east but the speciality stuff in Asheville. I know they had to dump a lot of batches of their juicy haze ipa Bc they couldn’t get it dialed in at the new facility.
I kept hearing about Fat Tire from people who traveled west and how great it was. First place I saw it advertised was a bar in Minneapolis in 2008. Was with my wife, and three month old at the time, daughter. I did all I could to not go in and try one. I could not get it in Charlotte until a few years ago. It was in Raleigh well before it it Charlotte.
I prefer drinking the actual local brews, some are much better than others. My go to locally if on tap is an Old Mecklenburg Copper Ale, which is much better on tap, or directly from the brewery than in bottles in stores.
As much as I despise Charlotte itself, the one thing this place does have going for it is the amount of breweries producing really good beer.