Triangle Brewing Co. (TBC) was a
microbrewery
Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...
owned and operated entirely by business partners (and high-school friends) Rick "the Brewer" Tufts and Andy "the Bloke" Miller who, in 2005, resettled in
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
,
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...
from Connecticut. Andy Miller had extensive local restaurant management experience, and Rick Tufts apprenticed at
Flying Fish Brewing Company
Flying Fish Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in Somerdale, New Jersey. Founded in 1995 by Gene Muller in Cherry Hill, it moved to its Somerdale location in 2012. It is today the largest craft brewery in New Jersey.
History
Flying Fish wa ...
and was an avid
homebrewer
Homebrewing is the brewing of beer or other alcoholic beverages on a small scale for personal, non-commercial purposes. Supplies, such as kits and fermentation tanks, can be purchased locally at specialty stores or online. Beer was brewed dom ...
long before founding a new
brewery
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...
. TBC began selling beer on July 4, 2007 and was the only microbrewery in Durham. The arrival of a microbrewery in Durham is arguably part of the current downtown art, building, and cultural Renaissance.
About Triangle Beers
TBC did not plan to be cast as a
Belgian style brewery when they developed their first beer, the Belgian Strong Golden Ale; rather, they wanted to enter the market with something notable and different. The goal of TBC was to produce balanced, full-flavored, yet highly drinkable Belgian and American style ales. TBC was distributed across North Carolina, primarily in the Triangle Area (
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
,
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
* Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...
, and
Wake Counties) but as far as
Asheville
Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous city ...
and
Charlotte
Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...
. TBC did not
pasteurize
Pasteurization or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life.
Th ...
any of its beers. TBC also produced a small amount of
cask ale
Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous car ...
in
firkins for use at special events. TBC was one of the first NC breweries to offer its flagship beers in cans.
On April 30, 2016, Triangle closed due to operations issues and heavy competition from the growing North Carolina micro and craft brewing industry.
IndyWeek , Durham beer pioneer Triangle Brewing Company talks why it's closing
/ref>
List of beers
*Triangle Belgian-style Golden Ale is the TBC's flagship beer, and continues to be brewed year-round. It is 8% ABV, fermented at warmer temperatures than the other ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops.
As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to bal ...
s to further develop the significant yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to consti ...
complexity, lightly filtered, and uses TBC's proprietary Belgian yeast strain.
*Triangle American-style Xtra Pale Ale
Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Dif ...
is the TBC's second year-round beer, meant to be a session beer at 4.5%. It is a straw-colored, hoppy American craft brewery style of Pale Ale
Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Dif ...
, using Washington grown Palisade, Centennial and Magnum hops. It uses the TBC's proprietary American yeast strain.
*Triangle Belgian-style White Ale
White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...
is the TBC's Summer seasonal
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
offering, a wheat beer
Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are German ''Weizenbier'' and Belgian ''witbier''; other types include Lambic (made with wild ...
that is totally unfiltered, made with white wheat, with limited use of hops and incorporating the traditional spices - orange peel and coriander. 5% ABV. It uses TBC's Belgian yeast.
*Triangle Belgian-style Abbey Dubbel
The term dubbel (also double) is a Belgian Trappist beer naming convention. The origin of the dubbel was a strong version of a brown beer brewed in Westmalle Abbey in 1856, which is known to have been on sale to the public by June 1861.Jef van den ...
is a seasonal offering of another complex, yeasty beer, at 7.2% ABV. The style is characterized by a large head, moderate maltiness, fruitiness, and warmth from the alcohol content. There has been a bourbon Bourbon may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash
* Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels
* Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit
* A beer produced by ...
- barrel-aged version. It uses TBC's Belgian yeast.
*Triangle Imperial Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...
is a heavily hopped Double Red ale, around 90 IBUs, and is 8.2%ABV. It uses very high amounts of malt to balance the very high level of bitterness, resulting in the high alcohol content as well. It uses TBC's American yeast.
*Triangle Stout
Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout.
The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscri ...
is a winter seasonal in the Foreign Stout style using chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civil ...
and other dark roasted malts, resulting in a deep ruby color appearing almost black, and flavor notes similar to coffee. It is 5.6%ABV. It uses TBC's American yeast.
*Triangle Mild Ale
Mild ale is a type of ale. Modern milds are mostly dark-coloured, with an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 3% to 3.6%, although there are lighter-hued as well as stronger milds, reaching 6% abv and higher. Mild originated in Britain in the 17th century ...
is a British-style seasonal using domestic and imported malts to get at the complex nutty flavor of the style, meant to be a session beer.
See also
*Other breweries in North Carolina.
*Barrel-aged beer
A barrel-aged beer is a beer that has been aged for a period of time in a wooden barrel. Typically, these barrels once housed bourbon, whisky, wine, or, to a lesser extent, brandy, sherry, or port.[List of defunct breweries in the United States
At the end of 2017, there were total 7,450 breweries in the United States, including 7,346 craft breweries subdivided into 2,594 brewpubs, 4,522 microbreweries, 230 regional craft breweries and 104 large/non-craft breweries.
The following is a p ...]
External links
TBC Homepage
TBC "Hoppenings" Blog
Pop the Cap NC - promoting beer cultulre
Beerinator - an NC beer community
References
{{coord, 35.9966, -78.8893, region:US-NC_type:landmark, display=title
Beer brewing companies based in North Carolina
Defunct brewery companies of the United States