If you have never been to NoDa Brewing Company, this weekend is a good time to make it happen. The brewery is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a party at its North End taproom, and it is the kind of event that fills a whole afternoon and evening without much effort. The party runs from 11:30 am on Thursday, October 24, through midnight on Friday, October 25, at 150 W 32nd St., and it is built around the things that have kept the place going since 2011: beer, food, and a bit of a scene.
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The day is paced so you can drop in and stay as long as you like. There is live music going all day, a Kids Zone from noon to 4:00 pm for anyone bringing the family, and brewery tours led by Chad and Matt at 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 pm if you want to see how the beer actually gets made. The night ends with a silent disco from 8:00 pm to midnight, which needs a $5 ticket from Eventbrite. For the beer people, the real draw is the anniversary releases: NoDaRyeZ'd, Ramble On, Red Sucette d'Suzie, and In Todd We Trust.
It is worth knowing what you are walking into. The North End spot is the main production facility, with a taproom and a beer garden, and it serves pizza alongside the beer, plus to-go cans and grab-and-go meals if you are just passing through. The hours there are Tuesday through Thursday 11:30 am to 9:00 pm, Friday and Saturday 11:30 am to 10:00 pm, and Sunday 11:30 am to 8:00 pm. If you are only in town for a layover, there is a second taproom over at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Concourse A North, near Gate A29, open Monday through Saturday 7:00 am to 9:00 pm and Sunday 10:00 am to 9:00 pm, though those hours can shift at HMS Host's discretion.
Behind the scenes, the place is still run by the people who started it. Suzie Ford is President and Co-Founder and CEO, Todd Ford is Vice President and Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board, and Chad Henderson is Head Brewer and Co-Owner. That continuity shows up in how they handle the community side of things. Their Poured with Purpose program turns Tuesday pints into charity: every pint ordered in the taproom on Tuesdays gets you a $1 token for the Impact Wall, which you drop into one of four buckets. At the end of the year, the total goes to each charity, and NoDa Brewing adds a matching donation of up to $500 to the one with the most votes. The charities they back cover a lot of ground: Charlotte Radiology's Project Pink, which has provided free screening mammograms to more than 1,300 women a year since 2011; Donate Time Out Youth, which supports LGBTQ+ youth; the Humane Society of Charlotte; and Safe Alliance, which works with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
One last thing that is good to know before you go: the brewery has a public code of conduct that says it will not tolerate harassment, bias, abuse, or discrimination of any kind, and it is not shy about asking people to leave if they break it. Between the anniversary party, the pizza, and a taproom that has been part of the city for fifteen years, it is an easy place to spend a Thursday or Friday evening.
