“We’re ready to bounce back:” Western NC breweries pitch tourist return at Brewgaloo

Brewgaloo, North Carolina's largest craft beer festival, returned to downtown Raleigh, offering a significant boost to over 110 local breweries. For Western NC brewers, this event is more than just a business opportunity—it's a rallying cry for tourists to return to the mountains post-storm.

The state's largest craft beer festival returned to the Triangle Saturday in downtown Raleigh: Brewgaloo.

The two day event is always big business for the more than 110 North Carolina breweries that set up shop. But for brewers from the Western part of the state, the hope is this year will be something more.

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“We’re like ‘hey, come visit, come visit!,’” said Chelsea Carmichael, who works at Asheville’s Highland brewing, and was pouring beer inside Highland’s tent on Fayetteville Street.

Carmichael said she’s used this year’s Brewgaloo to pitch people on coming back to the mountains.

“We’re trying to get the word out that Asheville’s back open,” she said.

Getting here hasn’t been easy. At Highland Brewing, the storm ground operations to a halt for months, as Asheville, and the brewery itself, were left without potable water. The brewery instead became a temporary aid distribution site.

Now, Carmichael said operations are back to normal, and the brewery is hoping to welcome visitors back to its taproom. Highland has also been brewing a special Highland Haze beer.

“For the next few months, some of the proceeds are going to hospitality workers in Western North Carolina,” said Carmichael.

This year’s Brewgaloo falls almost exactly seven months after Helene hit Western NC. New numbers released during a State Emergency Response Commission meeting Friday show there has been significant progress since the storm, though challenges remain.

More than 1,300 roads have reopened, and over 6.7 million cubic yards of debris have been removed. But nearly four thousand people are still working with state case managers to help secure housing, food, or help navigating federal bureaucracy.

“In Boone, the storm was pretty traumatic. We took a hit,” said Ray Edmonds, with Boone’s Booneshine Brewing Company.

Edmonds said demand in the Eastern half of the state, and especially Raleigh, helped sustain the business through the lean times after the storm.

“We’re getting there,” he said.

Edmonds hopes Brewgaloo this year can make a splash - and tempt some of the crowds in attendance back to the mountains.

“The town of Boone is vibrant already. We’re ready to bounce back,” he said.