Between their up coming Beerfest and a conversation with a friend I have been thinking about the Carolina Ale House this week. I have had the chance to stop in on occasion and the experiences have left me with this thought, what a wasted opportunity.

It's your typical sports bar but with a decent beer bottle list, the taps however are filled with mostly the light lager crowd and a few usual suspects of national craft beers you could find in any bar in the country. Change out the local college colors on the wall and you could be really sitting in a bar in Boston or Phoenix.

In an age when North Carolina is becoming national recognized for it's growing craft beer scene this seems a shame. I can understand the need to meet consumer demand and I can see keeping a couple of lager taps. That said the rest of the taps could be used to showcase all the great beers North Carolina is producing from Foothills to Old Mecklenburg, Big Boss to Lone Rider, to nearly 40 others. There is a world of options being brewed in their own backyard. Yes they may need to run some beer classes to educate their regular customer base, but there are plenty of people willing to help in that regard including myself. Carolina Ale House live up to your name, it's a great time to make the local crafted beers shine.