Nantahala Brewing gets beer flowing

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Jason Sandford

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

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A nice profile from the Tuckasegee Reader:

Nantahala Brewing Company started brewing in May, and their beers are already sold across the region from right next door at Marsden’s place Across the Trax in Bryson City to 12 Bones Smokehouse in Asheville, and a whole lot of places in between. They won gold and silver medals at the 2010 Hickory Hops Festival’s Carolinas Championship of Beer a month before they first sold to the public.

(Joe) Rowland said the Colliers’ long experience as craft brewers and beer judges made developing a product line a cinch.

“They know what they’re doing, so all we did was take recipes they’d already won awards for and that we all knew were great beers and scale them up to make them on a commercial level,” Rowland said.

NBC’s biggest-seller, Noonday IPA, is an example of the team’s ingenuity in turning a winning craft brew recipe into a really good microbrew product. The team retro-fitted their equipment to support a “hop-back” process that allows them to use whole leaf hops without gumming up their system.

Bryson City has been a hospitable host for the new business. North Carolina allows microbreweries to act as their own distributors and operate tasting rooms, two things Rowland said help the business make the bottom line and market its product.

The Nantahala Brewing Company name has come in handy too, tapping into the nostalgic experiences of millions of whitewater rafters throughout the South and lending the company a household familiarity to their nascent brand.

The Tuckasegee Reader also has a blurb about a craft brew fest in Sylva today.

 

Jason Sandford

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

  • 1

1 Comment

  1. Gary Neal June 23, 2011

    I love Whitewater rafting! I've been ocoee rafting quite a few times, but I've never tried the Nantahala River before! Apparently I need to visit North Carolina. http://www.raft1.com Isn't this near the Nantahala river? I'll make sure to grab a beer after.

    Reply

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