North Carolina Brewery & Beer Laws — What You Need to Know

A brewery permit by itself authorizes malt beverages only — no wine, no spirits. The malt beverages a brewery does sell are capped at 15% alcohol by volume, the statewide ceiling for all malt beverage products.

Since August 1, 2023, a technical-corrections bill (SB 91) lets a brewery separately hold an NC ABC Mixed Beverage permit, which allows the taproom to also serve liquor-based cocktails on premises — but that's a second, distinct permit on top of the brewery permit, not something the brewery permit grants by default. NC still has no combined "brewpub" license that bundles brewing and full bar service into one permit.

Under G.S. 18B-1001, a "growler" is a cleaned, sanitized container of 4 liters (about 1.06 gallons) or less, identified with the seller and the fill date. The definition was later amended to drop the old resealable requirement, which is what lets breweries fill crowlers — 32 oz cans sealed on the spot — the same way they fill growlers.

A growler filled to order (rather than pre-packaged for later sale) only needs a simple secondary label under state rules, no formal label approval. Bringing in your own clean container that meets that definition is standard practice at most NC breweries, but it's ultimately each brewery's call — some only fill growlers they sell on-site.

G.S. 18B-1104 authorizes a brewery permit holder to sell its own malt beverages at retail, for off-premises consumption, at the brewery itself. In practice that covers cans, bottles, growlers, crowlers, and kegs.

We didn't find a statewide statutory cap on how much you can buy to go in one visit the way South Carolina sets one (see the SC section below) — if you're aware of one, we'd rather correct this than leave it wrong; let us know.

Under G.S. 18B-1004, it's unlawful to sell malt beverages between 2:00am and 7:00am, or to consume them between 2:30am and 7:00am, at any permitted premises.

On Sundays, the statute sets a hard statewide floor: alcoholic beverages may not be sold or consumed before 10:00am, and no local ordinance can move that earlier. Cities can still choose to restrict Sunday sales further (for example, blocking sales between noon Sunday and 7am), so hours can vary slightly by municipality even though the 10am floor is fixed statewide.

NC's three-tier system normally requires a separate wholesaler to move beer from brewery to retailer. For years the self-distribution exception was capped at 25,000 barrels a year — the limit that Charlotte's own NoDa Brewing and Old Mecklenburg Brewery helped organize against as "Craft Freedom," arguing it penalized growing local breweries.

The 2019 Craft Beer Distribution & Modernization Act raised that ceiling: a brewery producing under 100,000 barrels a year total can now obtain a malt beverage wholesaler permit and self-distribute up to 50,000 barrels annually to retailers, no wholesaler middleman required for that volume.

A "brewery" under NC ABC law is specifically an establishment licensed under G.S. 18B-1104 that is not engaged in preparing food on the premises. That's the opposite of a restaurant permit, which requires a real kitchen and a food revenue minimum. A brewery can run entirely on beer sales with no kitchen at all.

Because a brewery isn't required to have a kitchen, most welcome outside food — bag lunches, delivery, or a food truck parked outside — as a practical way to feed customers without running a restaurant. We found nothing in NC ABC law that bars a permitted premises from allowing outside food, but the decision is the brewery's, not the state's; policies vary location to location, so check with the specific brewery you're visiting.

South Carolina's Brewery Permit (PWY) authorizes manufacturing and selling beer, ale, porter, or similar malt beverages — it does not authorize wine or liquor sales or consumption. A brewery that wants to serve cocktails needs an entirely different, separate license.

Beer itself can run fairly strong: SC classifies "beer" up to 14% alcohol by weight (roughly 17.5% ABV) under the same category as ordinary malt beverages, well above what most people associate with a six-pack.

Under the Craft Beer Economic Development Act (Act 31 of 2023), SC breweries can sell up to 864 fluid ounces of beer per customer per day for off-premises consumption — a jump from the old 288-ounce limit. That covers cans, bottles, growlers, and crowlers, priced close to normal retail.

One catch carried over from the older law: a brewery selling under the plain Brewery Permit has to make those sales in conjunction with a brewery tour, unless it also holds an On-Premises Beer & Wine Permit, which removes that requirement.

SC Code § 61-4-1515 sets a specific cap most people never hear about: a brewery can't sell more than 16 ounces of beer above 8% alcohol by weight to one customer for on-premises consumption within a 24-hour period. That's on top of the general beer classification limits above — it applies specifically to what you can drink on-site in one day, not what you can buy to go.