Crank Arm Brewing

On our walk to The Pit for lunch, we passed by a brewery with outside seating.  A quick stop (and closer investigating) informed us that this was Crank Arm Brewing - one of the breweries downtown that we had found online pre-arrival.

Michelle and I both enjoy a good beer, but what I think sold us on this particular brewery was that it was cycling themed!  Both Michelle and I ride, so a visit was a must!  So after stuffing ourselves as The Pit, we headed over to Crank Arm.

When we arrived, it was still pretty empty.  The outside tables were full, but inside the brewery it was almost empty.  We grabbed a seat at the bar to enjoy our beers.

The entire brewery was cycling themed.  There were bikes handing on the walls, bike artwork and chains on the wall.  All of the beers were also named after cycling terms (Unicycle, Rickshaw, Whitewall, Peloton, etc).

 
The bartender was very friendly (and helpful!) and I started with the Whitewall Wit, which was a wheat beer.  Similar to a Hoegaarden or Blue Moon.  I love wheat beers and this one was no exception.  It definitely was one of my favorites.

While we were drinking our first beers, we realized they did samplers of some of their beers.  Both Michelle and I decided to get that next as it was a good way to taste a bunch of their beers.

The sampler wheels got you 5 of their most popular beers - Whitewall, Unicycle, Rickshaw, Flying Scotsman, Dunkelbiken.  I am not a beer connoisseur (I just really like to drink it), so I can't give you full descriptions of everything.  Personally, my favorites were the Whitewall and Rickshaw.  I am not a huge fan of dark beers, but I didn't hate this one.

By the time we were ready to leave, the brewery had gotten packed!  And a lot of other runners had the same idea, as we saw many of the Rock'n'Roll backpacks there.

If you liked craft beer and are ever in Raleigh, a visit to Crank Arm Brewing should be on your to do list!