Red Oak Brewery

"New" location is very prominent, just off I-85 and easily visible from that highway. Large production facility with a small tasting area with four taps near the main offices in front. They only do tours on Fridays, but I stopped by on a Thursday for a growler - pre-filled only, unfortunately. They do not refill growlers, even their own (then why not just do crolwers?). I was looking for the Battlefield Black, but they haven’t produced that in years, so I settled for its replacement, Black Oak. Staff were friendly and helpful.

Review of the old brewpub from 3/27/06: Nice place to stop in if you’re in the Greensboro area. Small variety of beers but their own are good. They have 3 of theirs on tap: Red Oak (Lager), Battlefield Black (Dunkel I believe) and Humminbird (Light). Battlefield is the premier choice if you’re looking for quality; Red Oak is good too and much easier to put away several of them. Food quality is prety good for the price. Atmosphere is a typical high end college bar with several games on all the time. Service has always been good for me. Overall, this is a good place to have some good beer and a good time in Greensboro. Check it out.

I almost drove by this place last week while looking for it at night in the rain. It’s off the main road behind a shopping center. Once I found it I noticed the layout is a little unusual. Not neccesarily a bad thing, just different. The bar area where I stayed is big and nice enough. I was there on a Wednesday evening and there weren’t many people there, in the bar area or the restaurant. I was disappointed to find out they only have three of their own brews on tap, all lagers. Light, amber and dark. I sampled all three and would hard pressed to tell the difference between each. It seems all three start from the same base and they just add a little coloring to make it amber or dark. Not a very good variey. The food however was much better than the beer. I had a bowl of chilli and their "famous" drunken chicken. The chilli was good but the chicken was excelent. If I had to go back there again it would be more for the chicken than the beer. Not exactly want you to hear from a brew pub.

Located right on I-40 between Durham and Greensboro. You can’t miss it from the interstate but if you’re going westbound you may need to turn around at the next exit. Easy to find once you take the correct exit. Big huge shiny building. Generous sized samples of the three beers, which are all fairly average. The guy doing the pours was helpful enough. Growlers are $15 for one and $10 for two. Cash only, which I used as an excuse not to buy anything even though I had plenty of cash on hand. Nice enough stop for a few ticks, but not much else.

Definitely among the worst breweries I’ve come across in my beer searches. The structure itself is impressive in size and shininess. Their big kick is ’freshness’ so they don’t pastuerize anything - would be okay if the beers were actually half decent. The battelfield bock is the only palatable one of the THREE beers they are brewing. I asked why they didn’t have anything with hops, and they just sort of laughed it off and said ’beer should taste like beer, not leaves’. I asked about the other seasonals, and they said they have not brewed any in a while and are not planning on brewing any more anytime soon - at least for the next year or so, so i guess they should be retired. The reason they gave for not brewing any seasonals: ’we’d rather focus on brewing 3 great beers and getting our bottling line up and running". "3 great beers" - what a crock! Fresh -yes, unfiltered - yes, terrible homebrewish product - yes. They give tours on fridays at 3pm - for $5.

I went to the actual brewery off I-40/I-85 exit 138. A new facility, and very clean. Merchandise and growlers are all that is sold there. Not a bad place to stop by while traveling NC. The hours are not the best though.

A nice place overall. Limited selection that is basically 5 draft beers Black Lager, Red Oak, Hummin Bird, and seasonals like Big Oak. No bottles, which I would expect of a brewpub. I like the atmosphere. Game room and shuffle board are available. Food is average and selection is below average. Black Lager is their best beer and the rest I could do without. Not a bad place to stop in GSO.

Guess we didn’t catch them on their best night. Just dinner with the inlaws so was not expecting a lot. The acoustics of the dinning room are horrible and the food is average to bad at best. Service was good and she knew enough to describe well what beers they had. Didn’t have many of their more unique beers on tap but got a sampler of what they did.

Average menu but could have more selections. What we ate was good. Clean place with friendly staff that have at least a basic knowledge of what goes on there. very accomodating. I came at a time when they were not planning on giving tours but they managed to put something together anyway. Worth a visit.

The bar feels good to be there, lots to look at including some old brewing equipment and various beer related stuff. The three beers they had on tap were very average (yes, they only had three beers). The food was tasty but the menu could have had some more dinner selections. I had a burger. The beef was raised on the owner’s farm. I was hoping to have a nice steak. My wife had a delicious blackened chicken salad. Nice place to stop while passing through on my way to the beach.