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Every great beer scene has an origin story. North Carolina’s traces back to Durham. Until 2005, state law capped beer at 6% ABV, a rule that kept the stronger, bolder styles brewers wanted to make off North Carolina tap lists entirely. Durham was ground zero for the fight to change that, home to the brewers, advocates and organizers behind Pop the Cap, the campaign that spent two years pushing lawmakers to lift the limit. When the cap came down on Aug. 13, 2005, it cracked the door open for the craft beer industry North Carolina has today, and Durham’s breweries have been at the center of it ever since.
That energy is still on tap. Today, the Bull City is home to more than 20 breweries and taprooms, each with its own personality. Some pour German-inspired lagers next to firepits. Some specialize in Southern farmhouse ales made with local grain. Some are tucked into old tobacco warehouses, others into strip malls that hide serious beer behind unassuming doors. Wander from one to the next and you’ll find a scene that still carries the scrappy, do-it-yourself spirit of the people who fought to make it legal in the first place.
This fall, the Bull City Beer Challenge from Discover Durham is giving you a reason to prove your NC beer chops. Now through Dec. 31, turn a weekend of brewery-hopping into a game with a payoff. Download the free Discover Durham app, check in at participating breweries and taprooms around the city, and once you’ve hit 12 stops, you’ll earn a branded Bull City Beer Challenge T-shirt, available starting Oct. 1 at the Durham Visitor Info Center downtown. Several fall beer events, including Oktoberfest celebrations at breweries around the city, count toward your total too.
Don’t want to drive? Take the train. Amtrak drops you right into downtown Durham, walking distance from a handful of check-in locations, as a stop on the NC Ale Trail by Rail.
Whichever breweries you try, you’re drinking in a city that helped write the rulebook for what North Carolina beer could be. The 6% cap is long gone, and Durham’s brewers have spent 21 years proving what’s possible without it.
Get the full list of participating breweries, taprooms and events, plus everything you need to start your challenge, at discoverdurham.com/blog/durham-beer-challenge.
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