Part II: Brews
from Beyond the
Grave
BY LEWIS SMITH If you grew up in North Carolina during a certain era, your elementary school library was probably full of books of North Carolina ghost stories written by Nancy Roberts, which provided evocative sketches of North Carolina’s supernatural history. It’s just the kind of thing for impressionable 6-year-olds to be reading, because in those days before things like “parental supervision,” tales of grisly death and spectral wanderings weren’t gonna cause that much harm to an impressionable child’s mind, right? Struck by a sudden burst of nostalgia and looking for another hook for a Halloween article, we here at BrewScene decided to pair six ghostly tales with six goodly ales and see if a little magic couldn’t be made. So gather round the fire and hand us that flashlight — it’s time to get spooky.
The Story: Virginia Dare, the White Doe If you’ve spent five minutes in North Carolina, I hope you tried the barbecue. If you spent ten minutes here, you’ve probably heard about the Lost Colony, our famous legend involving disappearing colonists, culture clashes with the First Nations and tree vandalism on lovely Roanoke Island. One of the many explanations proffered for what became of these vanished souls posits that the first child born to this colony, Virginia Dare, was cursed by a sorcerer named Chico and turned into a white doe, who was then hunted by two guys with magic arrowheads and then turned into scuppernong grapes — because sure, that’s how all of that works.
The Beer: Beam Me Up (Skull Camp Brewing, Elkin) If any of you think that I might know what I’m doing, consider this: I spent 25 minutes trying to work out why a Scotch ale would be called “beam me up.” I did get there in the end, but it was a little embarrassing it took so long. This was my first Skull Camp beer, and it’s pretty great. A sweet initial taste yields to a sugary, sweet finish. It’s eminently drinkable and the sweet flavor is balanced enough that it doesn’t overstay its welcome It’s a perfect middle of the road beer for when you want something a little heavier than the norm but don’t want to go too far to the dark side. A very solid beer, indeed.
