Charlotte’s first brewery in a (former) bank opens soon
There’s some irony in Kiel Arrington opening a brewery in a former BB&T.
Arrington didn’t qualify for a small business loan through that bank when he first started pursuing his dream of opening a brewery. He continued to chase his dream, though, and is now on track to open Vaulted Oak Brewing in April.
He didn’t go out in search of a bank building, but the location “fell into his lap.” The fact that it was so close to his home made the spot even better.
“I had always kind of said, jokingly of course, that if anyone’s going to build a brewery in my neighborhood, I want to make sure that it’s me,” Arrington said.
Technically, the brewery is in Echo Hills and Arrington lives in the nearby Oakhurst neighborhood, but as a longtime resident of the area he’s excited to bring another brewery to East Charlotte.
“It’s interesting to see and fun to be a part of what I’m calling responsible development,” Arrington said. “Living so close, I want to see this area and really the Monroe Road corridor and this strip of Monroe Road developed responsibly and to be a big factor in that.”
Expect nods to the bank, but not a bank theme
While the brewery’s name calls to mind the building’s previous tenant, don’t expect a full-on bank theme.
“Being a bank-themed brewery has always been something that I’ve wanted to stay away from, but I definitely want to have certain nods to the building’s past,” Arrington said. “I know that this is not a historic building or anything like that, but it was still pretty cool and important for me to be able to refurbish or reuse an existing building. I definitely didn’t go into it originally looking for a bank necessarily, but it presented some cool opportunities.”
Some of those nods to the past include the vault door and lock boxes inside the building. The brewery converted the bank’s drive-thru into a patio, with roll-up doors and a bar where the teller window used to be. The pneumatic tubes used to transport canisters from the drive-thru remain as well, though Arrington is still figuring out how exactly they’ll come into play.
“We’ll definitely put a can in the canister and shoot it through just to say we did it of course,” Arrington said with a laugh. “But I don’t think from a consumer standpoint we want to be sending out shaken beer.”
While this will be Arrington’s first experience working at a brewery, he’s no stranger to the beer industry. He previously worked as the bar manager at Lebowski’s Neighborhood Grill, where he had been “basically since day one.”
“That’s when I really started to get more into what the local and regional craft beer scene was doing,” he said. “It was a very exciting time. That’s kind of where I found my passion for craft beer and the business side, as well.”
Working there for more than a decade, Arrington learned a lot about the beer industry — but he knew he would need an experienced team when the time came to open his own venture. That team includes Johnie Jones, who runs trivia for Heist Brewery and will be Vaulted Oak’s director of entertainment; Chuck Kistler, who is the CFO; and David Carey, who is the head brewer.
Carey previously brewed at Triple C Brewing Co., where he had been since 2014. He met Arrington at Triple C’s taproom, and the two even once brewed a small batch together.
“Ever since then he’s always been in the back of my head as someone who would be a good head brewer, and somehow the stars aligned and we were both in a similar position to move up,” Arrington said.
Easy-drinking styles for spring, barrel-aged beers later
Carey plans to fill the brewery’s initial tap list with dark beers, IPAs (hazy and West Coast) and lighter styles well suited to the spring weather. Later on, the brewery will branch out into barrel-aging and wild ales. “Our space isn’t really large, but as we move forward we’ll be focusing on some more specific styles and hoping to grow a bit of a mixed culture barrel program also,” Carey said.
Carey will brew all of those on a seven-barrel brewhouse, the same size system he used at The Barrel Room at Triple C.
“It’s a good size that you’re making good use of your time and able to get product out, but it’s small enough to where it leaves you a lot of flexibility,” Carey said.
In the past, newly opened breweries would sell almost all of their beer within their own walls. COVID has changed that. With some still preferring to drink at home, Vaulted Oak will look to bring Crowlers and cans in as soon as possible.
“We’re still kind of on an accelerated pace looking at those individual packaging options than we would have been initially,” Carey said.
While Vaulted Oak won’t have its own kitchen, Arrington plans to have food trucks parked on site and encourages people to bring in food from nearby restaurants like Sal’s Pizza Factory and Oakhurst Grill.
Vaulted Oak Brewing
3726 Monroe Road (Opening in April)
Instagram: @vaultedoakbrewing
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