I was invited to be part of a Fayetteville, NC blogger and influencer meetup hosted by the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitor Bureau. This is not a sponsored post. All views and opinions are my own.
Brews, Burgers, and Yoga are not your typical combo for a gluten-free blogger to talk about. I am not the typical gluten-free blogger though and Dirtbag Ales is not your typical brewery.
I have a knack for finding my husband good beers and Dirtbag Ales in Hope Mills, NC doesn’t disappoint. I discovered their brewery back in 2015 at an event I was at with Team RWB at Carolina Horse Park. I left the event with a cooler full of their beers and since then their beers have been among my husband’s favorites.
As odd as it may sound since I can’t drink beer, I recommend Dirtbag Ales, all of the time. I had never gone to their brewery, it has been on my to-do list for a while. They are always posting great events that you don’t need to drink beer to be part of. When the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitor Bureau invited local to a Day at Dirtbag Ales, I jumped at the chance and I am glad that I did.
Brews
Dirtbag Ales is a veteran-owned business that is doing great things in the Fort Bragg area. Their story starts out similar to many other breweries, it all started with some homebrew that Tito made and the rest is history.
The day of our visit Tito started with the basics of beer and the brewing process. All beers pretty much start the same way. There are 4 basic ingredients in beer (but only 3 are mandatory)
You need water, yeast, barley (malt),
and hops.
Hops are the only ingredient that is not mandatory but they are an ingredient that gives beer flavor and stability.
If you want to learn more about the beer making process every Sunday at 1 and 3 Dirtbag Ales offer tours that start at their bar. I am sure you will learn all sorts of fun facts like we did. Like, they make 540 gallons of beer at a time but can only bottle 6 beers at a time!
Coming Soon: Changes at Dirtbag Ales
When something becomes more and more popular, sometimes you have some growing pains. Dirtbag Ales is some good stuff, or well I have been told it is and they are at that point. It is time for them to move from their Legion road location to a larger facility 3 miles down the road.
Their new location is amazing. I hope it will live up to what I have imagined. There will be something for everyone. It will be a much larger indoor space and outdoors they will have a little bit of everything. They have planned sports fields, playground, dog park, stage and a place for food trucks and more! They just opened for weekend farmer markets with Sustainable Sandhills, so be sure to check them out!
Dirtbag Ales Events: Yoga with Hayat Yoga
One of the great things about Dirtbag that draws people to them is their events. They have a variety of weekly events and special events every month.
While the #FayNCBloggers group was there we had the opportunity to take a yoga class taught by Hayat Yoga. Hayat herself taught the class for us and it was one of the best yoga classes that I have taken in the Fayetteville area. Hayat is a former US Army Warrant Officer and after retiring she decided to stay in the area and in 2013 Hayat Yoga and World Dance started.
Hayat made the class fun, entertaining and relaxing. I would take her classes again any day and make sure to keep my eyes open for when she is on the DirtBag schedule. Self-care is important and self-care with some beer or in my case cider makes the class even better, in my opinion.
Food Trucks: R Burger
While Dirtbag doesn’t have a kitchen you can still get a great bite to eat while you are there hanging out. There is a rotation of food trucks that frequent the brewery. While we were there R Burger was on premises.
I first had R Burger back in 2015, they gave every participant of a local half marathon a free meal. At the time the only thing I was able to have was their fries but my husband told me their burger was good. Over the years I have heard nothing but good things about this veteran-owned food truck. On this day, I was finally able to try a gluten-free version of their burger. 
When I saw pimiento cheese on their menu, I knew I had found the burger for me. So I ordered a lettuce wrapped Southern Burger and while it was good, I would ask for more pimiento cheese in the future.
In the end…
As our day came to an end at Dirtbag it was evident to me that this place was way more than a bar but, it was something much better. It was a great family friendly place to go hang out. You could go for some trivia or meet up with some friends for a run or yoga or just stop by for meal from your favorite food truck. Yes, they have a beer for most anyone and some really unique flavor options but they also offer both wine and cider also. Although I will suggest to anyone try their beers if you can, you may be surprised and find an ale, saison, wit, kolsch or, porter for you.
You can visit Dirtbag Ales at:
3623 Legion Rd., Hope Mills, NC 28348
Check out Dirtbag Ales Farmers Market (and new location) at:
5423 Corporation Dr
Cumberland, North Carolina 28348
Dirtbag Ales Website
Dirtbag Ales FaceBook
Dirtbag Ales Farmers Market Facebook
Sustainable Sandhills
Hayat Yoga
R Burger
