Sierra announced a few months ago but now New Belgium is coming to Asheville for their east coast operations. Both are going to have full breweries, tasting rooms and on site pubs!

Love how much of a beer state NC is becoming and this is exactly why archaic morality laws limiting abv % are fucking stupid.

4/6/2012 8:17:42 AM

as are blue book laws. Road Trip!!!

4/6/2012 8:19:34 AM

DOWN WITH BLUE LAWS, ALE, AND ABC.

YAY TO GOOD BEER.

4/6/2012 8:29:17 AM

^^^I'm not trolling you, just genuinely curious. But, how does limiting abv % keep the beer industry from expanding in NC? I mean, that's two well known craft brewers coming to NC right there. Are they coming despite abv % limits? I mean, maybe I'm missing something?

I mean, as long as they keep making delicious brews, I'm good. I want my beer somewhere in the 5-9% range most of the time anyway.

[Edited on April 6, 2012 at 8:31 AM. Reason : ]

4/6/2012 8:30:59 AM

^the NC beer scene has taken off because the limit in NC was raised from like 5% to 15% (I don't remember exact numbers). Essentially, having abv limits discourages brewers from opening shop, because 1) it proves the state isn't friendly to their kind and 2) alcohol content in beers is extremely important to character, taste, etc. It's not that everyone wants to drink 12% beers or that's all brewers want to brew. It's just that some beers naturally higher abv, thus when the state limits you to say, 5%, then brewers don't open shop because they're limited to session beers, some stouts, and bud light competitors.


[Edited on April 6, 2012 at 8:35 AM. Reason : .]

4/6/2012 8:32:15 AM

Up until, 2005 (?) they limited abv to 6%. At that time no craft brewery would ever think of coming here and something like two of the three largest craft breweries in the country would never add jobs and revenue to the NC economy.

4/6/2012 8:35:10 AM

Oh, so that law is gone now. I thought you meant it was some law still in place. Yeah, good riddance to that bs

4/6/2012 8:36:28 AM

wiki

Quote :

"On August 13th 2005, House Bill 392 in the NC State legislature was signed by the Governor. HB 392 is commonly known as the Pop The Cap Bill, was a bill that was intended to change the alcohol by volume cap on beer from 6% to 15%.[1] See the law's text at: NC General Assembly Website (2005-2006 Sess.)"

4/6/2012 8:37:19 AM

I heard a rumor that NCSU is working on adding a brewery sciences degree.

4/6/2012 8:44:07 AM

^ Yeah, we are. I'm currently doing a side project for my grad degree in the pilot plant.

Well, the degree program may come later, but we're at least trying to expand the brewing operation and maybe get some classes structured. Some of our beer has actually been served at a few, very select University sponsored events. Just weaving through all of the red tape slows things down a little.

[Edited on April 6, 2012 at 8:49 AM. Reason : ]

4/6/2012 8:46:09 AM

That's pretty awesome. Are there other universities in the US with this degree?

4/6/2012 8:51:28 AM

yup, ever since pop the cap, breweries have been popping up left and right, and creating thousands of new jobs across the state.

It's one of the few good decisions made by our state government over the last decade or so.

4/6/2012 8:57:59 AM

^^Oh yes. For one, UC Davis has a really legit program. I wouldn't expect us to ever get to that point but you've got to start somewhere.

[Edited on April 6, 2012 at 8:58 AM. Reason : ]

4/6/2012 8:58:39 AM

A guy in my Chem E program used to run a brewery and made us all beer as his senior design project. Cool dude.

4/6/2012 9:31:07 AM

Quote :

"Are there other universities in the US with this degree?"

Isn't there something at App?

4/6/2012 9:33:02 AM

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/brewing-degree-1276/

4/6/2012 9:44:13 AM

^^ I looked at their majors listing and didn't see anything but that doesn't mean they don't have a concentration or something. http://www.appstate.edu/academics/majors.php

4/6/2012 9:46:36 AM

Ordinarily, I'd laugh at anyone for getting excited about this, but Sierra Nevada is fucking great beer, so congrats NC

4/6/2012 11:07:49 AM

IMO sierra nevada is a crap beer and i wouldn't drink it if my mouth was literally on fire.

4/6/2012 11:36:36 AM

Their pale ale is alright. Not the first thing I'd order in a bar but I wouldn't turn it down if offered.

4/6/2012 11:38:15 AM

Quote :

"IMO sierra nevada is a crap beer and i wouldn't drink it if my mouth was literally on fire."

You realize Sierra Nevada makes like 20 different beers at any given time, right?

4/6/2012 11:43:33 AM

^this.

SN & NB beers aren't my favorites, but each have several that I do enjoy.

4/6/2012 11:46:18 AM

ok well i was referring to their pale ale. fuck that noise.

i will withhold judgement on the others until a later date.

4/6/2012 11:52:05 AM

interested to know what ^this man likes to drink.

4/6/2012 11:53:39 AM

Beer snobs ITT

As far as IPAs go, it's like the Budweiser equivalent. But I adore all IPAs and their hoppy-bitterness

4/6/2012 11:54:18 AM

i wouldn't go that far, but Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the second highest selling craft beer after Sam Adams Boston Lager. It's been around for 30 years and has stood the test of time. You can ask a lot of craft beer drinkers what beer turned them onto the world of craft and more than half would say SNPA

4/6/2012 12:04:33 PM

In California, it's on tap pretty much everywhere. That's all I meant

4/6/2012 12:06:04 PM

^^I don't like either of those beers

[Edited on April 6, 2012 at 12:06 PM. Reason : ^^]

4/6/2012 12:06:10 PM

this is awesome!

4/6/2012 1:05:41 PM

Thanks to this thread, I am now more excited for the brewery sciences degree at NCSU than I am for SN & NB coming to NC.

Highly considering re-enrolling now...

4/6/2012 1:13:50 PM

it will probably be awhile

4/6/2012 1:36:27 PM

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is a very solid beer. Def one of my go tos when I don't want to break the bank. I also LOVE Celebration Ale and Bigfoot.

4/6/2012 3:07:14 PM

CNBC picking up the story now:

Quote :

"Move over Milwaukee and step aside St. Louis! There’s a new Beer City, USA. Asheville, North Carolina is now the hottest spot in the brewing world. The city can make its claim for brewing supremacy in the wake of the No. 3 craft brewer, New Belgium Brewing, announcing it will be locating an East Coast brewery there."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46978796

[Edited on April 9, 2012 at 12:52 AM. Reason : .]

4/9/2012 12:50:25 AM

lol at that headline, that's about the most absurd thing i've ever heard. milwaukee and st. louis are far from the beer city... they do realize that sierra nevada and new belgium have their headquarters elsewhere right and that these are basically east coast expansions. it's good none-the-less, but i hate to break it to them, but NC's best breweries (top 5 imho) aren't even in Asheville. NC is a great beer state in general.

yes i'm a little biased living in Denver, but Denver has opened a new brewery pretty much every other month this year and have 4-5 opening in the next couple months, we'll be close to 25 breweries within city limits of Denver and that doesn't even include the surrounding area/suburbs. Asheville being the "hottest spot" in the brewing world right now? they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. the beer scene is pretty much blowing up everywhere, Austin, TX is up there too.

[Edited on April 9, 2012 at 1:08 AM. Reason : .]

4/9/2012 12:58:59 AM

Asheville has the most breweries per capita of any city in america iirc

4/9/2012 2:24:18 AM

You could have 2 breweries in a town of 10,000 people and have the most breweries per capita, more than Asheville technically. a) it doesn't imply any sort of quality, b) it doesn't necessarily mean that there is a high quantity of breweries if the town is small. c) brewery per capita is not the sole qualifying statistic for what makes a good beer culture, nor is it even that important. just look at Vermont. it's the state with the highest brewery per capita and i'd rank California, Michigan, Colorado and Oregon all above Vermont in terms of the number of quality breweries and established beer cultures in a state.

Anyhow. I'm happy for Asheville and if anything it's a good sign of what's to come. I mean clearly they have something going on or else Sierra Nevada nor New Belgium would have opened their expansions there.

[Edited on April 9, 2012 at 1:02 PM. Reason : .]

4/9/2012 12:45:26 PM

4/9/2012 1:07:59 PM

Just pointing out the inaccuracies..

4/9/2012 1:13:17 PM

Mmmmm Sierra summer

4/9/2012 1:17:26 PM

So, I'm just wondering, why Asheville? Why choose that town of all the ones you could choose?

4/9/2012 1:46:54 PM

^


and I'd add because it's a good central location on the east coast for distribution, tax incentives, affordable real estate?


my favorite SN.

[Edited on April 9, 2012 at 1:52 PM. Reason : .]

4/9/2012 1:48:27 PM

And Oskar Blues (of Dale's Pale Ale fame)!

http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_20522765/longmont-based-oskar-blues-offer-limited-run-beer

Quote :

"LONGMONT -- Oskar Blues is headed for the hills. Fresh off celebrating the 15th anniversary of Oskar Blues Grill & Brew last weekend in Lyons, the Longmont-based brewer announced its first venture outside the Centennial State, a restaurant/music venue and brewery in Brevard, N.C. In a statement released late Tuesday, founder Dale Katechis, a mountain biking enthusiast, said he has kept a bike in Brevard, on the edge of the Pisgah National Forest, for years, and travels there frequently to go mountain biking and to attend the annual Mountain Song Music Festival. "This place rings true with the same eclectic mountain charm that inspired Oskar Blues to put Dale's Pale Ale in a can back in the day in Lyons," Katechis said in a statement announcing his plans. His company has signed a contract on a 30,000-square-foot brewery space adjacent to a 6,000-square-foot restaurant and music venue in downtown Brevard, which he said, has a "small town main street tone" similar to Lyons. The company has been looking at taking its Colorado operations "to the next level," Katechis said in the statement, but opening a smaller venue in a community he has an affinity for struck him as "a lot more fun," as well as allowing the company to save on shipping costs, as more than 35 percent of its beer is sold east of the Mississippi River. The new venue should be up and running by December, the company said. Oskar Blues made other news Tuesday when it announced that it and Indiana-based Sun King Brewery are collaborating on a new limited-release beer they are calling CHAKA, a Belgian-style ale that will be packaged in 16-ounce, resealable aluminum bottles made by Ball Corp. The two breweries worked closely with Ball and Cask Brewing Systems on the design of the Alumi-Tek bottle, which will be used for limited-release beers and for Oskar Blues' new B. Stiff & Sons Old Fashioned Root Beer. The connection between Oskar Blues and Sun King dates back 15 years, when Dave Chichura, now Oskar Blues' head brewer, started his professional brewing career in Indianapolis and became friends with the two men who founded Sun King. They had been talking for years about working together on creating a beer and are excited to do it while introducing new packaging available to craft brewers, according to a joint statement by the two breweries. "

5/11/2012 2:41:29 PM

subscribe to the beer thread

5/11/2012 2:44:56 PM

I check in there every now and then...think it's a little more topical here.

5/11/2012 2:47:21 PM

GTFO. This is Coors Light country.

5/11/2012 2:53:08 PM

We should post names of all the inbred ignorant republican representatives and senators that voted against the pop the cap measure.

5/11/2012 3:00:10 PM

5/11/2012 3:06:09 PM

Quote :

"So, I'm just wondering, why Asheville? Why choose that town of all the ones you could choose?"

asheville is full of fucking hippies

5/11/2012 10:27:41 PM