Public Relations

Posted on Fri, Feb. 14, 2003
Carolina brewery open for tour
ELLISON CLARY
Staff Writer


For those curious about how their beer is brewed, a pack of area breweries offer walking and tasting tours. Carolina Beer & Beverage in Mooresville is among the latest to join the club. Its tours begin at noon each Saturday.

Regional brew aficionados know the place by its signature product: Carolina Blonde. For seven years -- during which time Charlotte-area microbreweries have come and gone, reflecting the rise and fall of the national microbrew fad -- Carolina Blonde and its eight sibling brands have steadily added customers.

Carolina Beer & Beverage has 38 employees, up from four in 1998, said president John Stritch. The plant produced 150,000 cases in 2002, a 10 percent hike from 2001, he said.

Beer drinkers had been requesting brewery tours, after seeing Carolina Blonde and related brands -- with a map to the brewery stamped on six packs -- appear in local pubs and grocery stores.

In November, Stritch and partner Mike Smith, decided to oblige. Hourlong tours are $5 and include sampling of the brewery's nine beers.

Carolina Beer tours highlight the alchemy of beer brewing, which entails mixing water, barley, hops and yeast in 20-foot-tall stainless steal fermenters, giant vats and shiny kegs.

"People are amazed at how simple and natural the (brewing) process is," Stritch said.

Stritch and his crew have hosted groups as large as the 300 conventioneers from the Direct Farmers Marketing Association to groups of three or four. One man even brought his dog and let her slurp some suds.