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| Depressing |
Satellite vs. HQ: Satellite
Non-Beer Options?: No
Food Options: Light snacks
Google Rating: 4.2/5
Yelp Rating: 4.5/5
Untappd Rating: 3.75/5
Normalized Rating: 31.6/100 (28th)
Website: https://www.d9brewing.com/
Area: Uptown
Address: 650 E Stonewall St Unit D, Charlotte, NC 28202
My Evaluation
Beer Rating: 2/5
Atmosphere Rating: 0/5
Overall Rating: 1/5
Evaluation: Until I recently visited D9 Uptown for the first time, I was adamant that a certain other brewery that I loath would come in last place (more on that in my next post). However, I can confidently say after visiting D9 Uptown that this place takes the cake as the worst brewery in Charlotte.
First, I have to apply two quick caveats in D9's defense:
1) This is a satellite location for D9, with their main brewery up the road in Cornelius. As far as I can tell, this is meant to be a local spot for the apartments on Stonewall St. I don't believe they do any of the brewing at this location, and so this hardly counts as a Charlotte brewery within the context of my power rankings. Thus, its not entirely fair to compare D9 Uptown to other legitimate Charlotte breweries. But that's what I'm here for.
2) As of the time I am writing this, D9 is working on building an outdoor pavilion and beer garden across the street. While that wont change how I feel about the beer, it may change the atmosphere very slightly. Then again, they're building it on a plot of land immediately adjacent to a highway, so I have my doubts.
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| Beer garden that backs into I-277? Bold move cotton. |
With those caveats aside, D9 Uptown is simply not a place to seek out with so many other options around. D9 makes some OK beers out of their Cornelius location, but nothing that jumps out as above average. When they try more ambitious or creative styles, the results end up significantly worse (I tried a tropical IPA infused with grape essence that tasted like cough medicine). The bigger problem is that D9's uptown location has a very limited tap. When I went there, there were only 8 taps, two of which were empty. To add to it, almost everything that they had on tap was some form of IPA or sour. The quality and variety of beers at D9 Uptown was not up to par with the other Charlotte breweries.
While their beers are only slightly below average, their atmosphere (or lack there of) is what cemented D9 in last place on these power rankings. The space is very small, inside one of the new cookie-cutter "luxury" apartment buildings, and feels overwhelmingly sterile. What's more, there is currently no outside seating to speak of. You end up with a cramped room that happens to serve a few mediocre-to-bad beers and not a lot else.
Think I'm being harsh? The normalized rating (explained here in my publicly available beer spreadsheet) provide me with some validation. The public's consensus is that this is a bottom 5 brewery in Charlotte. I have nothing against D9 personally, but they come in at 31 out of 31 in my Charlotte beer power rankings.
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