Small is the New Big (Again)
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round us, we're seeing the first signs of summer easing its way into fall. It brings to mind how so much of the world is cyclical. Beer is no exception to this — styles come and go, only to come back around again. The whole experience of beer in North Carolina has seemed to follow a circuitous path, and by seeing where it's been, we might just get a peek at where it's going. The very first brewery in North Carolina opened in 1774, called Single Brother’s Brewery and Distillery on Old Shallowford Road in Salem (didn’t even have the “Winston-” yet). Growth was relatively sedate for the next few hundred years, with Prohibition all but annihilating North Carolina beer. When Uli Bennewitz wanted to
50 | Carolina Brew Scene | Fall 2018
By Glenn Cutler and Dave Tollefsen
open a brewery here back in the mid80s, he encountered a few logistical snags preventing him from attaining his dream. Working with state politicians, he pushed legislation allowing microbreweries to sell their own beer on site. The 90s saw a few breweries open and close around the state. The competition at this point was the acceptance of craft beer against the long held staple of “Big Beer” plus the price difference of buying local. Additionally, there was a hard cap of 6 percent ABV the brewers had to observe, limiting offered styles. The session and wild beers you see now weren’t on the radar back then. Availability of local beer was mostly limited to the breweries themselves. The passion was to grow but there was a lot to overcome. The exponential growth of breweries
started just a few years after “Pop the Cap” was passed in 2005. WOO HOO! Breweries can brew beer up to 15 percent! The growth of breweries spurred the growth of bottle shops and growlerfilling stations that focused on only craft beer. Only a few breweries in the state had their product available for shelves. The pace of growth in beer varieties, volume brewed and the sheer number of operating breweries meant that competition grew ever fiercer. Shelves had to be rearranged or increased to handle all this new product. Tap space now became a premium; even with 16 taps, the amount of product available meant a hard choice for the store owners on who to carry — and who gets left out. This was fantastic for the store owners to have so much selection, but
