By Lewis Smith Certain things are inseparable parts of our state’s identity: college basketball, beaches, mountains, barbecue, Raleigh being under constant road construction — all essential building blocks of North Carolina’s unique character. And also — pirates. North Carolina’s history is replete with stories of legendary buccaneers, brigands, cutthroats, and various assorted men and women of piracy, many of whom enjoyed a good drink now and again, mayhem permitting. We here at Brew Scene, in what is commonly termed “a lay-up” in the beer writing game, decided to match six legendary North Carolina pirates with six legendary beers, and see if we came up with something both nautical and nice.
THE PIRATE: Blackbeard (Edward Teach) In the 17th and 18th centuries, it’s very difficult to turn a ravenous appetite for mayhem into a career path, but damn if Edward Teach didn’t manage OK with it. Cutting a swath of pillage up and down the coast, one of his favorite gimmicks was setting his own beard on fire to scare people, which we’ll admit is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that cements one’s legacy as a legendary rogue and why you always warn kids not to play with matches. It’d be a heartwarming feelgood story of making your own way in a hard world, except for ... well, all of it, especially his sorry finish — Blackbeard was ultimately shot five times, cut 20 times and executed by beheading, probably to keep him from coming back as a zombie.
42 | Carolina Brew Scene | Summer 2018
THE BEER: Blackbeard Breakfast’s (Heavy Seas Beer, Baltimore, Md.) Our friends at Heavy Seas beer came up with porter so powerful, you’ll feel like you just kissed a cannon. A powerful concoction worthy of Mr. Teach, this beer features notes of nuts, coffee, and so much malt, but the main takeaway from start to finish is the powerful kick it gets from being aged in bourbon barrels. That bourbon flavor is the main element of the taste, though it does even out to a sweet finish. Make no mistake — this is one heavy duty pour (that bourbon aging kicks this into a pleasant 10 percent ABV, after all) so this is not necessarily a beer with those who have plans for the rest of the day. But the flavor and the sheer force of it made it an instant favorite, and worthy of Blackbeard’s legacy.
