Brewery Spotlight: Divine Barrel Brewing in Charlotte, NC
We love getting to know the breweries that make up the ever-growing craft brewing industry — which is why we started our new “Brewery Spotlight” blog series.
With each post in this series, you'll get to know some of our favorite craft breweries, as well as what led them to become such a crucial part of the craft beer community.
Last time, we spoke with Dennis Thies, the owner of Green Man Brewing out of Asheville, NC.
This week, we spoke with James Amato, the Marketing Manager at Divine Barrel Brewingout of Charlotte, NC.
Work For Your Beer (WFYB): We are so happy to chat with you, James. Let's just dive into some questions! What is the most popular beer you sell?
James (J): We are known for our West Coast IPAs, crazy sours, and lagers.
WFYB: Wow! I'm sure just about anyone can find something they like! What beer are you most proud of brewing?
J: Our Head Brewer, Ben Dolphens, says he’s the proudest of our Czech Pils. Brewing lagers true to style is extremely difficult. You can’t hide behind adjuncts or anything like that. They’re a true test of a brewery’s mettle, and whenever Czech Pils is around, it doesn’t stick around long!
WFYB: I'm sure it is very popular amongst the masses! What is the weirdest beer you’ve ever made (whether you sold it or not)?
J: I would have to say Dirty Reindeeror Dancing in Quicksand are some of the stranger beers we’ve brewed. Dirty Reindeer was a cocktail-inspired Imperial Shandy, brewed with ruby red grapefruit and bourbon-soaked oak chips. Dancing in Quicksand is our Thai-cuisine-inspired Pastry Blonde Ale brewed with coconut, kaffir lime leaves & lactose. Think Good Morning Vietnam, but weirder! *laughs* Both are excellent beers, but definitely out there in terms of concept.
WFYB:Dancing in Quicksand is the crazy we all need in our lives. Now, let's transition... if you had to make the *perfect* mixed six-pack, what beers would you include in it?
J: This is such a difficult question to answer because I think we brew so many great beers, but if I have to choose a perfect 6-pack that represents DBB, I think I’d have to go with the following:
Czech Pils - Because you need a crusher
Lime Lager - Another perfectly light beer, but this American Lager has just enough lime to be uber refreshing.
Moving to Montana - West Coast IPA hopped with Citra, Simcoe & Strata hops.
Lead-Filled Snowshoe - West Coast IPA hopped with Simcoe, Mosaic & Citra.
Carolina Cobbler: Peach - Peach Cobbler Pastry Sour brewed with peach, vanilla, cinnamon, graham crackers, and lactose.
Ice Cream Paint Job - Our original Pastry Sour version is brewed with raspberry, blueberry, sweet cherry, vanilla, and lactose.
WFYB: We know you are passionate about giving back to the Charlotte community — how does Divine Barrel contribute to the local community?
J: Oh goodness, I don’t even know where to start here. I know a lot of breweries talk about being community-oriented, but we genuinely try to weave community into just about everything we do around here. We’re collecting can tabs for Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte, which started out as just us, but we’ve since spread the collection process to about 15 or so local breweries & cideries.
We have most recently been working with Pilot Brewing to create HR toolkits and workplace safety seminars for local breweries in an attempt to keep our taprooms safer for everyone in our communities. We are constantly trying to partner with, support, and uplift local organizations, and honestly, just try to make our space as welcoming and friendly as we possibly can for anyone and everyone who walks through these doors. Breweries can be community hubs, and we’d love to be considered one here in Charlotte.
Honestly, being community-oriented can be something as simple as striking up a conversation with someone who may not look like you, and just spending a little time getting to know them! That’s how we met Tyrone Irby, founder of Together We Stand NC, which is a Durham-based non-profit committed to creating conversation and change around the inequities people of color face daily. Just from striking up a conversation with him and his wife, we’ve developed a friendship. We actually just co-hosted The Unity 5K in partnership with his Together We Stand NC and helped raise our single biggest donation amount ever. It’s all about your attitude and willingness to be open!
WFYB: Y'all are the real deal. Speaking of creating a great community: what brewery activities and fitness events do you host?
J: We host RunDBB every Thursday at 6:30 pm, which is our weekly run club! We also host General Trivia with Mindless Minutia Trivia every Monday starting at 7:00 pm. There are four rounds for you and your team to win prizes and have some fun!
WFYB: Huuuuge fan of the Run DBB run club crew, that's for sure. Now, how about one fact people don’t know about Divine Barrel?
J: We want people to know we have loads of fun with our beer! Our cans of beer are like a Marvel movie… there’s always some fun little easter egg involved. Our actual beer names are usually obscure references to a song. The artist who designs our labels, Dave Kaminsky, is awesome and will hide little easter eggs in certain labels. We have a character we call the bitterboi for our West Coast IPAs, and Dave will hide that character within all of our West Coast IPA labels. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious, and then sometimes we have to look pretty closely to find it!
If you look at the bottom of our cans, we’ll often put show dates from our favorite Phish shows, or some funny saying in relation to the beer! We want y’all to enjoy every facet of our beer as we do!
WFYB: What a great way of putting that! What makes Divine Barrel unique? Why should someone stop by your brewery versus the many other breweries in Charlotte, NC?
J: As I said in the last question, we have a ton of fun around here, but we ultimately take our beer extremely seriously. We pride ourselves greatly on creating one of the most diverse tap lists of well-executed beer in the city. While we’re known for our West Coast IPAs, sours, and Lagers, but if you come by the taproom, more often than not you’ll find a great list of other delicious styles, ranging from crazy experimental beers to traditional brews!
WFYB: Lastly, why do you support the #WorkForYourBeer mantra?
J: Well, for one thing, we’ve known Mel and Alicia for years now, even before Divine Barrel was ever a brewery, and they are truly wonderful people who are immensely smart. It’s really easy to support wonderful people like that! Besides that, Work For Your Beer is a brilliant concept that fills an important need in the brewing industry. So many breweries host workout activities but figuring out which one or finding the right one can be difficult. So, by creating a database of those activities, as well as mixing in fun educational content, it’s just a great way for us to reach an audience that may not necessarily find us otherwise! We also have TOOOOOOOONS of fun making social media videos with Mel on the reg! But mainly, we just love working with Mel and Alicia because they’re such great people!
WFYB: Totally not blushing rn. (JK, we are.)
Thank you to James and Divine Barrel for taking the time to share their story with us here on the Work For Your Beer blog.
If you ever find yourself in Charlotte and fancy yourself a drink, definitely go check out Divine Barrel and find those Easter eggs.
Want to be considered for an upcoming feature? Email cheers@workforyourbeer.com to set up an interview!