Satellite vs. HQ: HQ
Non-Beer Options?: Yes - seltzer and wine
Food Options: Food trucks
Google Rating: 4.7/5
Yelp Rating: 4.5/5
Untappd Rating: 3.79/5
Normalized Rating: 58.35/100 (13th)
Area: Cotswold
Address: 3726 Monroe Rd, Charlotte, NC 28205
My Evaluation
Beer Rating: 1/5
Atmosphere Rating: 1/5
Overall Rating: 1/5
Evaluation: My guess is that Vaulted Oak's ratings on Google/Yelp/Untappd is simply a product of low sample size due to the fact that this is one of the newest breweries in Charlotte. Fortunately for me, I am unswayed by recency bias. My experience at Vaulted Oak was remarkably unremarkable, and I do not have a strong desire to go out of my to back there. While Vaulted Oak scores identically with Suffolk Punch and D9 Brewing, I have given Vaulted Oak preference in the pecking order on account of the fact that are new and things could improve.
First, I need to talk about their beers, or lack there of. When I went there, they had exactly 4 beers on tap that they brewed, and several other local beers that had been curated. As I said with Suffolk Punch, it is generally a bad sign when your brewery serves other breweries' beers. I chose an IPA that was supposedly their flagship brew (C notes was the name I believe), but was incredibly pedestrian. The other options were another IPA and two sours. To break down my beer rating, I would give them a 0/5 on variety, and about a 2 or 2.5/5 on the quality of the beer that I had. Thus, I'm taking an average and giving them a 1/5 on beer. I found nothing interesting or inspiring about their beer. My only hope is that as they grow, they will offer a wider array of beers.
The overall atmosphere left a lot to be desired for me as well. The location is strange in that is very inaccessible from the city center and not by anything else of note. Apparently they took an old bank and converted it into a brewery, but it feels out of place. To their credit, they have a good amount of outdoor and garage/open air seating, and the brewery was actually quite busy when we went. Nonetheless, it didn't have any real character or charm to it in my view, and there was nothing fun to do other than sip on a small selection of beers.
As I mentioned above, Vaulted Oak actually comes out with decent ratings across the internet (13th!), which I believe are more indicative of how new it is than anything else. I expect that as more people check this place out, ratings will come down. If you live in the Cotswold neighborhood of Charlotte, maybe you are more inclined to stop by here for a drink. However for the rest of Charlotte, I would not recommend going out of my way stop by Vaulted Oak. There is nothing extraordinary that makes this place stick out with all of the other options, and thus they land at 29 in my list.
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