Burial Beer Co. House of Relics

Burial Beer Co.'s House of Relics opened on 11 June 2022 at 1214 Thomas Avenue in Plaza Midwood, the Charlotte outpost of the Asheville brewery founded in 2013. The building has history it makes use of: the taproom draws its look from the vintage clothing store that occupied the space before it, and the result has been described as moody diner's club meeting a seventies pool bar. It runs two bars carrying 36 Burial draft lines between them, plus cocktails and wine, with a rooftop bar above. There is no kitchen of its own. Burial chose Plaza Midwood deliberately — its Charlotte general manager called the neighbourhood probably the most Asheville neighbourhood in Charlotte, which is a fair description of a district built on record shops, tattoo studios and independent bars. It opens at 1pm on weekdays and noon at weekends, running to midnight on Friday and Saturday.

For a non-drinker the position here is honest but qualified. Burial produces Chaosmachine, a non-alcoholic India pale ale under 0.5% ABV, brewed with barley and oats, whirlpooled with Citra, Mosaic and Cryo hops and dry-hopped with Citra — a genuinely hop-forward beer rather than a token low-alcohol one, sold in six-packs of 12oz cans at $15. What cannot be confirmed from Burial's own published information is whether Chaosmachine is actually pouring or stocked at this taproom on any given day: the brewery's Charlotte beer list runs to eighteen current beers and does not include it, and the product page does not say which locations carry it. With 36 rotating draft lines and a bottle shop, the odds are reasonable, but this is a venue worth phoning ahead about rather than travelling to on the assumption. If Chaosmachine is on, it is one of the better non-alcoholic IPAs made by a craft brewery rather than an NA specialist; if it is not, the room has cocktails and wine but no confirmed zero-proof beer.