Standing next to the shiny copper still at Top of the Hill’s microdistillery in Chapel Hill, proprietor Scott Maitland easily links his newest venture to his well-known microbrewery down Franklin Street. “I think of this wheat whiskey like a porter,” he said. Maitland’s whiskey is made with organic wheat, as opposed to corn and barley, reviving a rare style much like the campaign years ago to save the porter beer style in Britain.

Top of the Hill is bringing together its new line of Topo small-batch spirits with its craft beers Sunday at the Bootleggers Banquet. The dinner celebrates the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition and debuts two new beers: the “Old 96” pale ale and an imperial stout aged in whiskey barrels.

The pale ale uses 96 percent locally sourced ingredients thanks to North Carolina-grown grains from Riverbend Malt House in Asheville. Top of the Hill’s brewery is one of many local craft brewers, including Fullsteam in Durham and Aviator in Fuquay-Varina, to start incorporating Riverbend into their beers. Read this week's full Pintful beer column here.

Take the best of the Triangle, Fullsteam and Bull City beers and mash them together. What do you get? The first-ever collaboration ale from Durham’s three craft breweries.

The trio came together on the unique project for N.C. Beer Month in April, said Seth Gross, owner of Bull City Burger and Brewery. The concept was simple: Take the signature grain, a specialty malt and the dominant hop from each brewery, at equal proportions, and make a beer. The end result is a hop-forward, copper-colored beer with roughly 6 percent alcohol. “It’s not any particular style,” said Gross, who is brewing the beer at his restaurant. “It’s representative of what the three brewers embody.”

The project also represents a movement gaining steam in the craft beer industry: the collaboration ale. The whole idea of multiple breweries putting their creative minds together to produce a single, often nouveau beer under a joint label sets the craft industry apart. It’s the tangible result of the camaraderie you hear so much about in the industry.

Gross said the Durham collaboration – which will debut April 3 at each brewery’s tasting room – is still a work in progress. Once the initial fermentation is completed, the brewers may add another twist – a dry hop or possibly a specialty ingredient, such as rosemary from the bush on the nearby street corner, Gross said.

In the meantime, the breweries are soliciting a name for the beer. The brewers will considered top five “liked” names submitted by March 31 on Bull City’s Facebook page. Read this week's Pintful column here.

The concept sounds silly to some: beer tourism. What kind of nerd travels across the state – let alone across the country – to drink a pint of beer? Ahh, hmm, err ... me. On my honeymoon to northern California a couple of years ago, my wife and I visited six breweries. (She’s a goddess.) We hit four Michigan breweries during a recent trip to see relatives. And I’m far from alone.

At North Carolina craft beer events, it’s not unusual to meet enthusiasts from outside the state. Take, for instance, the Florida couple I met who drove all night long for the Foothills Sexual Chocolate release in Winston-Salem or the guy from Atlanta who came to North Carolina three times in less than two months for beer events.

All this is to say it’s not a surprise to see the N.C. Division of Tourism as the driving force behind the inaugural N.C. Beer Month, a celebration of the state’s craft beer culture in April. “The idea came about as we reached this critical mass of breweries,” said Margo Metzger, a spokeswoman for the division, which is part of the N.C. Department of Commerce. “We have been promoting craft beer for several years now, but we saw this great momentum building. ... We definitely thought craft beer was hot.” Read this week's Pintful craft beer column here.

UPDATED: Raleigh Brewing Company opens Saturday at 5 p.m. with special offers for the first tasters.

The starting lineup at the capitol city's newest craft brewery features six beers and other experimental batches, along with a cask ale. What's on tap: an English bitter (City of Blokes), a light lager (Uncommon Curiosity), a rye India pale ale (House of Clay), a Belgian golden strong (HellYesMa'am), a Scottish ale (Blatherskite) and a wheat IPA lager (Love Triangle).

The experimental beers include an American wheat with blood oranges (Agent Orange) and a dry stout. A root beer for the nonalcoholic crowd will also be on tap.

Brewer John Federal told me a few weeks ago that he expects the light lager and rye IPA to be popular -- both are recipes he has honed for years as a homebrewer.

As part of the opening day festivities, Blue Sky Dining will serve food from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., a beer trivia game starts at 8 p.m. and live music begins at 9 p.m. and goes until the midnight closing. The brewery is located off Neil Street across from Meredith College.

The first 100 customers to buy an unfilled growler receive a commemorative coaster and punch card to get prizes after trying all the brewery's core beers. Find more information here.

Mystery Brewing in Hillsborough broke the mold when it debuted a year ago with its seasonal-only craft beer lineup. And don’t expect anything less in the second year.
Founder and head brewer Erik Lars Myers plans to offer Mystery beer in seven-ounce bottles sold in four-packs later this year.

The miniature bottle is a rarity in the craft beer industry, where 22-ounce bombers and champagne bottles typically showcase a brewery’s special offerings. But the smaller size makes more sense for Mystery, which offers four different “flagship” beers each season.

Myers envisions offering four-packs of one beer and mixed packs with one of each seasonal beer, essentially a take-home tasting flight.

“This is going to sound funny as a brewery owner, but I don’t drink that much,” Myers explained last week as the brewery celebrated its one-year anniversary. “Twenty-two (ounce bottles) are really easy, but that’s a lot of beer. Sometimes when I’m sitting down and drinking a beer, I don’t want a ton of it.

“To me it’s about variety and that fits our model really well,” he continued.

Read more about Mystery Brewing's first year and plans for the second in this week's Pintful column.