List of Breweries in North Carolina

This article regards brewing in North Carolina.

History

The earliest documented commercial brewery in North Carolina was in the Moravian town of Bethabara in Wachovia. According to the Moravian Diaries, a log house was constructed for a distillery and brewery in 1756.^[1] The May, 1764 brewery and distillery inventory listed 270 gallons of brandy, 40 gallons of rye whisky, and 90 gallons of beer on hand.^[2] The Bethabara brewery and distillery continued operating until the last brewer moved away in 1814.^[3] The Bethabara brewery operated longer than the Single Brother's Brewery in nearby Salem, NC

In 1985, Uli Bennewitz pushed a change in the North Carolina law books. This change made it legal for a brewpub to exist under state laws. The next year (1986) Bennewitz opened NC's first brewpub, Weeping Radish Bavarian Restaurant.

On August 13, 2005, House Bill 392 from the NC General Assembly was signed by then-Governor Mike Easley. HB 392 (commonly known as the "Pop The Cap" Bill^[4]) defined a "malt beverage" as any "beer, lager, malt liquor, ale, porter, and any other brewed or fermented beverage" that contained between .5% and 16% alcohol by volume.^[5] This represented an increase from the previous limit of 6%. As of 2021, there were more than 340 active breweries in North Carolina.^[6]

List of breweries

Name	City	County	Opened	References
Appalachian Mountain Brewery	Boone (original) Mills River (2nd location)	Watauga Henderson	2013 (original) 2023 (2nd location)	[7]
Asheville Brewing Company	Asheville (3 locations)	Buncombe	1998 (original) 2006 (South Slope) 2012 (South Asheville)	[8]
Ass Clown Brewing	Cornelius	Mecklenburg	2011	[9]
Bearded Bee Brewing Company	Wendell	Wake	2020	[10]
Carolina Brewery	Chapel Hill(original) Pittsboro (2nd location)	Orange Chatham	1995 (original)
Goose & Monkey Brewhouse	Lexington	Davidson	2020	[11]
Grove Cartel Brewing Company	China Grove	Rowan	2021	[12]
Gizmo Brew Works	Raleigh (original) Chapel Hill (2nd location) Durham (3rd location)	Wake Orange Durham	2013(original) 2019 (Chapel-Hill) 2022 (Durham)	[13]
Green Man Brewery	Asheville	Buncombe	1997	[14]
Mother Earth Brewing	Kinston	Lenoir	2008	[15]
New Belgium Brewing Company	Asheville	Buncombe	2016	[16]
Red Oak Brewery	Whitsett	Guilford	1991	[17]
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company	Mills River	Henderson	2012	[18]
Sycamore Brewing	Charlotte	Mecklenburg	2013	[19]
Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery	Chapel Hill	Orange	1996	[20]

List of closed breweries

Name	City	County	Opened	Closed	References
Nantahala Brewing Company	Bryson City	Swain	2009		[21]

See also

• Beer in the United States
• List of breweries in the United States
• List of microbreweries