Raleigh NC Craft Beer: 20 Local Brewery Taps at Element Gastropub

Element Gastropub's 20-tap wall in downtown Raleigh showcases the best of North Carolina craft beer — Trophy, Burial, Fullsteam, Ponysaurus, Bond Brothers and more. Here's why it matters and what's pouring now.

If you've been paying attention, Raleigh has quietly become one of the best craft beer cities in the South. The Triangle — Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and the surrounding towns — is now home to dozens of breweries that consistently win national awards, and the local drinking culture has matured right alongside them. At Element Gastropub on Fayetteville St, we built a 20-tap wall specifically to celebrate that scene. This isn't about volume for the sake of volume; every tap is a deliberate choice, and we rotate it constantly so there's almost always something new to try. Why Raleigh Became a Craft Beer City Three things converged here over the past decade. First, North Carolina updated its alcohol laws to make it easier for small breweries to self-distribute, which let founders take risks that wouldn't have been viable in other states. Second, the cost of doing business in the Triangle stayed low enough that brewers could rent real production space and actually experiment instead of just chasing trends. Third — and this is the underrated piece — Raleigh drinkers actually showed up. Sour beers, Brett saisons, hazy IPAs, traditional German lagers, barrel-aged stouts: people here will try anything as long as it's well made. The result is a deep, varied beer scene that doesn't look like anyone else's. You'll find a brewery doing rigorous old-world lagers next door to one running wild fermentation programs with locally foraged fruit. That diversity is exactly what we wanted to put on tap. What's on the 20-Tap Wall Right Now Our tap list is genuinely rotating. We don't have a permanent house IPA or a flagship lager — every keg is pulled when it kicks and replaced with something different. That said, our list always tries to hit a few categories so there's something for everyone: 3–4 IPAs spanning hazy, West Coast, and double IPA styles 2–3 lagers and pilsners for crispness and easy drinkability 1–2 sours from breweries doing serious wild fermentation 1–2 stouts or porters — usually one easy-drinking and one bigger A wheat or saison for the warmer months 2–3 ciders , including dry and fruit-forward options from NC orchards A rotating "weird tap" — table beer, gose, kettle sour, or a collab we couldn't pass up You can always check the latest list on our taproom page , which updates whenever a tap turns over. The North Carolina Breweries We Pour Most Often These are the producers we keep coming back to, organized loosely by city: Trophy Brewing (Raleigh) — Right down the road from us. Creative IPAs, sharp pilsners, and seasonal sours. Trophy was one of the breweries that put downtown Raleigh on the beer map, and we treat them as a default house pour. Bond Brothers (Cary) — Hop-forward, well balanced, and absurdly consistent. Their hazy IPAs are some of the cleanest in the state. Lonerider Brewing (Raleigh) — A Raleigh institution. Their flagship Sweet Josie Brown Ale is one of the best in the southeast. Fullsteam (Durham) — Southern-inspired beers with farm ingredients. Their Sour You Can Have It and First Frost persimmon ale are local treasures. Ponysaurus (Durham) — Maybe the best label design in NC, but also the beer is great. Don't skip their saison program. Burial Beer Co. (Asheville) — A modern Asheville classic. Big, dark, and complex stouts plus some of the best hazy IPAs in the state. Hi-Wire Brewing (Asheville) — Known for clean lagers and approachable sours. The kind of brewery where there's no bad pour. Wicked Weed (Asheville) — Their funky barrel program is among the best in the country. Clouds Brewing (Raleigh) — Neighborhood-style brewery with friendly, sessionable beers. That's not exhaustive. We also pull from Big Boss, Crank Arm, Brewery Bhavana, Steel String, Mystery Brewing, and a long tail of smaller producers who are doing brilliant work. What to Eat With What You're Drinking A 20-tap wall only matters if the food can hold up to it, and ours is built specifically to pair with craft beer. Everything on our menu is plant-based — but if that surprises you, give it a shot before you decide. Our pub menu is what most people order alongside a flight: Wings with six sauce options — from Hot Hunee to Jamaican Jerk to Carolina BBQ. Hot Hunee with a hazy IPA is unbeatable. Voodoo Chili Cheese Fries — built for a crisp pilsner or West Coast IPA. Smash Burger — pairs perfectly with a brown ale or a malty amber. Chili Crisp Broccolini from the Chef's Table — tries something a little funkier with a saison or sour. Black Garlic Steak Plate — our biggest entrée; goes well with anything dark, especially a barrel-aged stout. If you're not sure what to order, the bartender will absolutely help you find a pairing. We do this every day. Why Local Matters Most chain spots fill their taps with the same six national IPAs. We made a different choice on purpose: about 80% of what we pour is brewed within driving distance of downtown Raleigh. The money you spend here on a pint stays in North Carolina — at the brewery, t