Fillmore Craft Beer Sessions

I’m going to quote Jeff S. to start. «Charlotte has way too many beer festivals». It’s true, we do. So, as beer drinkers, we pick and choose our favorites.
Fillmore Craft Sessions was a winner for me. First, it had to do a lot with the venue. Fillmore turns out to be a great facility to have a beer fest. The tiered staging did a nice job of showcasing the brewer’s tables on multiple levels. It was easy to keep track of where you’d been. The perimeter bars were even utilized for the brewers. The spacing was good and didn’t make it feel crowded at all. I do imagine that if these sessions do become popular, they could get crowded. Hopefully, they will limit tickets sales to keep crowd numbers down; they almost have to, as I’m sure the Fillmore probably has a maximum occupancy.
Next — I love A/​C! If you’ve walked around a festival sweating into your beer, you can appreciate air conditioning. An indoor beer festival? I love it! There was a great DJ playing some old hip hop music. The acoustics here are obviously good and it was nice to have some high quality background music. Out back, there were three food trucks — Frank the Tank, True Craft Pizza and Papi Queso. Of course I had to eat at all them because who can choose from such killer options?
40 Breweries were represented this session. Local favorites like NODA, Birdsong, Triple C, Unknown and Sycamore showed up, as well as some national faves like Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, Terrapin, Ballast Point and Stone. Sadly, Fonta Flora didn’t make it — I love their beer! Unknown made an incredible Opening Act IPA for the fest, which was «hands down» the best beer of the day. Birdsong brought along a cask of their delicious Higher Ground IPA infused with Jalapenos!
So, to wrap it up, the Summer Session of the Fillmore Craft Beer Sessions was a solid 4 stars in my book.