How to Help Western North Carolina Breweries – Charlotte Magazine

State Brewers Guild has set up a foundation, other resources to help Helene survivors

As it did to many communities and businesses, Hurricane Helene devastated the extensive independent brewery scene in western North Carolina—mostly in Asheville, one of the nation’s leaders in number of breweries per capita.

At week’s end, the Asheville Brewers Alliance was just beginning to buy and distribute large amounts of clean water to breweries still intact enough to make beer, said Executive Director Karis Roberts. But about 15 of nearly 100 brewery operations in the region are too damaged to brew even with a source of water, she said. What the community needs more than anything for months to come, she said, is capital.

Here are some ways to help:

The N.C. Craft Brewers Guild has set up a nonprofit, the N.C. Craft Brewers Foundation, that accepts donations and distributes hardship and development grants.

The Guild also has a page for relief and support, including links for brewery jobs for displaced workers and the Pouring for Neighbors initiative, in which breweries around the country can reserve proceeds from beer sales to benefit western North Carolina breweries.

DSSOLVR, a downtown Asheville brewery, has launched Higher Calling, a project to raise funds for the Craft Brewers Foundation through sales of a hazy IPA. The brewery is offering the recipe, label, and a list of suppliers to fellow brewers.

Sierra Nevada, the California brewery with a production center in nearby Mills River, is donating $1 per barrel of its popular Celebration Fresh Hop IPA to the foundation.