Catawba Brewing prepares to announce changes to plans for Asheville brewery

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Billy Pyatt, co-owner of Catawba Brewing based down in Morganton, offered this when I asked him for an update on Catawba’s plans to build a new boutique brewery in Asheville. Back in May, Catawba Brewing announced plans to build the brewery on Fairview Road, at the old Patterson Oil Co. site  right across the street from French Broad Brewing (and near Biltmore Village.) I told Billy I’d been by the site a couple of times and seen very little work. (The above rendering is what the company put out in conjunction with its May announcement.)

Here’s what Pyatt wrote back:

Hi Jason

Your eyes ain’t lying… there has been little progress since the building demo. It’s a long story of permitting woes over the past year, really. But in the end, we have been forced to go to a plan B.

I am on the cusp of being able to tell all about “Plan B”… but I don’t want to jinx our efforts just yet. At this point all I can do is confirm we still believe in our home market, and we still intend to build a brewery in Asheville – we aren’t backing down. But there is more to the story.

Can you bear with me a few days?

I told Pyatt thank you, and we’ll be ready and waiting for his update.