Enjoy beer brewed by a pilot in an aircraft hangar

Amateur pilot Mark Doble started brewing his Aviator beer in two used dairy tanks located in a small hangar next to his kit airplane. The kit is still on the ground but the beer has taken flight. It’s one of many great brewing stories in North Carolina, which has more brew pubs than any other state in the South. Doble’s Aviator Brewing Company in Fuquay-Varina, just south of Raleigh, now has its own smokehouse restaurant and a tap house. Brewing has moved to a larger facility across town that includes an actual tasting room — as opposed to the limited space in the old hangar. Brewery tours are offered Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The tasting room opens an hour before the tours so visitors can sample some of the brews. The Tap Room is located downtown in the historic 1910 Varina train depot. Across the street is the Aviator Smokehouse, which serves smoked wings, pulled pork, chopped Eastern North Carolina pork, St. Louis-style smoked ribs and, of course, Aviator beer. With more than 300 breweries in the state, North Carolina visitors are never far from fresh local beer and great stories from the people making them.