Exciting news today from Burial Beer Company of Asheville, North Carolina. Why am I talking about a North Carolina brewery on the Washington Beer Blog? Trust me, this is a local beer story. Kind of. Burial Beer Company just announced big expansion plans.
Tim, Doug and Jess were Seattle area home brewing enthusiasts who dreamed of opening a brewery. They were also bloggers, operating Beer Blotter, a Seattle-based, world-focused beer blog. In 2012, when they were finally ready to make the big leap into the world of professional brewing, the three moved from Seattle to Asheville, North Carolina. In 2013, they opened Burial Beer Company.
Who does that? Usually people move to Seattle to open breweries, not away from Seattle. But off to North Carolina they went. Tim Gormley, Doug Reiser and Jess Reiser still have friends around here, and they were a part of the Seattle beer scene, so I’m sharing the story here.
When it opened, Burial Beer was a modest affair, just a one-barrel brew system, but it was theirs. Last year they produced about 1,600 barrels. Today, Burial Beer Company stands ready for a notable expansion. Not only are they increasing capacity by tenfold, they are moving to a new location that better represents their initial vision for the brewery.
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The new brewery will be more like a complex, occupying a 1.4 acre property just outside of Biltmore Village on the southern end of Asheville. Read more about it from a local source here.
It’s an historic location. The old Forestry Camp was built in the 1920s and purchased by the federal government in the 1930s as part of the New Deal Program. Young men working for the Civilian Conservation Corps lived there while helping build the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Now, the property will be transformed into a two-story taproom and lounge, a production facility, and a restaurant. There will be a full acre of outdoor space, including urban gardens and an outdoor event venue. The $1.8 million expansion will create 17 full-time jobs.
Read more about this whole thing on the Mountain Xpress
Congrats to the people we used to call “The Beer Blotters” but now call “Burial Beer.”
