Fullsteam Brewery

Pros: I think the physical location of Fullsteam Brewery is a fantastic space. It's really cool to just walk in and see all of the games (Air Hockey, Darts) and the large tables spread out for groups to sit down at. The bar area is really nicely decorated and the bartenders are generally very friendly. I do appreciate the owner's love for Durham and his commitment to using local/NC ingredients for his beers. In many ways, the people who come to hang here represent the "True Durham" culture.

Cons: As someone who has grown to love Durham over the past couple of years, I feel bad only giving 3 stars, but though Fullsteam's space is really nice, I find that I would rather be at one of the pub/bar options near Main Street. To begin, given that there is no A/C in the building, I only would want to be in the bar area for a long period of time, which I've found in many cases to be too small in terms of seating avaliable and too loud to carry a conversation with the people I am with. Don't get me wrong -- I think Fullsteam's beers are fine and decent on their own terms, but I don't think that there's anything really exceptional to them outside of the fact that they're often brewed with what would be considered "weird ingredients" such as Sweet Potatoes and Basil. These beers, especially the Rocket Science IPA and the Carver, are definitely worth trying , but in my opinion, other local small-scale breweries such as Bull City Burger and On Top Of The Hill in Chapel Hill produce much better beer. All in all, it's a place I'll come to off and on.

Recently I have discovered that all of my favorite beers were from other states (Virginia and Florida). With me being so North Carolina proud I decided that I had to fix this situation so I have set out on a Triangle Brewery Tour throughout the rest of the summer to discover some new favorites. If the rest of the tour goes as well as my first stop I am in for a great summer.

Now I currently live in Raleigh, but my sister had brought to my attention some of the more interesting choices that Fullsteam offered, and because of that I figured it would be a good first choice. Getting there was not hard at all, plus anytime I get to drive past the old Durham Bulls park I consider it a plus (still love that place). Parking was easy on this day, but I could imagine it might be a problem on busier days, especially if they closed the street like they sometimes do.

I kept wanting to give Fullsteam a 4 star review, but every time I "found" a problem with it I found a solution that was so much better. For example: I was kind of bummed that they did not have any food on site, oh what's that, they have food trucks. They didn't have A/C, who cares, they have ping pong as well as other cool games. They had a limited selection of beers available in growlers, no worries, there are Fullsteam growlers for sale at Beer Revolution right around the corner from where I work.

I love what Fullsteam is doing with trying to keep as much as possible in the state of NC. Sure some things that do might seem a bit hippieish but who cares, their beer taste great. My top two winners are the Working Man's Lunch (seriously a beer based off of Moonpie and RC Cola) and the Cackalacky Ginger Pale Ale (and it is a real Ginger taste, like Northern Neck Ginger Ale not Canada Dry Ginger Ale)

Fullsteam is different.  It's just a brewery, but not a brewpub, so you can bring in outside food.  That's one of the reasons why food trucks flock to the area--great symbiotic relationship going.  Also a great spot for birthdays because you can bring in cake to eat with their beer--no pressure of a dinner or a big hubbub--people can come and go as they like.  They only serve their own beers (and some wine I think?), no liquor.  They usually have about 8 beers on tap: their mainstays (the sweet potato Carver, their Toro cream ale, and their chocolatey Working Man's Lunch (I'm forgetting their fourth) and seasonals (like their Cackalacky or Basil Summer Ale).  Their beer is usually pretty good.  I'm a big fan of their Carver and Toro--good but drinkable beers that aren't overly hoppy.  Their seasonals can be hit or miss.  I love the heat of the Cackalacky, but their bacon beer was one of the worst beers I've ever tasted.  But, I've found that it's the same for almost all the craft breweries in the area--so I'm definitely not going to hold it against Fullsteam for being creative and going out of the box to take a risk.

As a resident in Durham for several years, Fullsteam has always been my favorite bar in town.  I've been there at all times of day and the week--on packed weekend nights when you couldn't find a place to sit, on an empty Wednesday night to grab a slice of Pie Pushers and a pint, and on a Saturday afternoon.  Maybe I like Fullsteam so much because there are always food trucks outside and I LOVE food trucks.  Although that's part of it, Fullsteam has a charm of it's own, outside of just being in Durham's budding hipster-ish warehouse district.  The warehouse is huge--and one wall is glass so you can see the brewing equipment.  The bar is sort of contained in a small room, which can get crowded.  There's two other really large rooms, which have darts, a ping pong table, some old-fashioned video games, and a ton of benches.  The long tables with benches make it great for groups.  Also, there's outdoor seating to the front and side when the weather's nice.  It's definitely nothing fancy, but it has a casual charm.

Also, I've noticed people complaining about kids running around.  And, kids are usually only there on Saturday and Sunday afternoons--and that's just Durham, for lack of a better way to put it or explain it.  Before reading those reviews, I never thought twice about it--just took my food in, grabbed a pitcher to split with friends, and enjoyed hanging out a bit.

Also, if you're a trivia fan--their Thursday night trivia is awesome.  Because you can bid points on categories, it's much more strategic than just answering 30 questions correctly.  Finally, their website has a lit of which foodtrucks come which days under schedules, which is really helpful!