FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
On a clear sunny Friday afternoon in December ’25, my wife and I drifted into the South to soak up the sun and a few suds in Savannah, Hilton Head and Tybee Island. But our first stop was Fayetteville to take in the newly formed NORTH SOUTH BREWING COMPANY, opened May 31, 2025.
North South owner James Orlando began homebrewing in 2011 and along with his wife, Alicia, grew up in New England, met in Savannah, then moved to Fayetteville (soon hooking up with local head brewer Jonny Isaacson).
Crafting highly approachable and easygoing stylistically fare at their beige yellowed cement-floored barn house facility, the Orlando’s spacious neo-Industrial pub features a silestone-topped, L-shaped, 20-stool bar anchoring silver metal chaired tables strewn across the bright blue interior. A benched grass patio adds further seating.
A backwall projection screen TV has the BYU-Georgia Tech bowl game on while we consume eight North South ales.
For a light-bodied opener, dry beige cleared Lager Than Light let spritzy salt-watered lemon sourness spike its mild sourdough bottom and latent metallic sheen.
Rustic grain penetration gave Saaz-hopped Czech One Two, a Bohemian pilsner, its Scotch-daubed corn whiskey pulse.
Lemony banana-clove settled above white wheat sourdough breading of Sweet Fraulein, a tidy Noble-hopped pilsner-malted hefeweizen.
Musky lemon fizz prickled grassy hop astringency and diacetyl pale malt buttering of Grain Juice Kolsch, scoured by dried maize snips.
Spiced banana sweetness lingered softly for Chains Of Krampus Tripel, revealing subtle lemon custard, orange marmalade and blueberry wisps at the butterscotch-candied finish.
Perfumy orange-peeled peach, pineapple and mango tanginess gained vanilla-creaemed oated wheat buttering for Haze Girl Hazy IPA, leaving mild grass-stained pine musk on the Citra-Mosiac-hopped tropical fruited entry.
Dry Cold Winter Cabin Stout secured its nutty coffee bean creaming with dark cocoa powdering grazing dark-roast hop char.
Pudding skinned dark cocoa spread across Hello Darkness My Old Friend, a diffident Imperial Stout scattering musty black cherry, dry burgundy, anise and walnut snips across the dark chocolate base.