The North Carolina Brewers Guild is pleased to announce that they have received a generous donation from the Carolina BrewMasters, the state’s largest homebrew club, with over 200 members, based in Charlotte, NC. The donation of $1500, which was part of the proceeds of this year’s Charlotte Oktoberfest, was announced at the group’s December 2nd meeting.
The Charlotte Oktoberfest is in its 11th year and over 6,000 people attended the event this year. “The primary goal of the event is to educate the Charlotte community on the very good craft beers we have available both locally and around the state.” said Benfield. It is 100% volunteer driven, beer and other items available at the event are donated by breweries and distributors. Proceeds raised from the event are donated to various charities and organizations. In addition to the North Carolina Brewers Guild, the club made sizable donations to the local chapter of the National Kidney Foundation and Victory Junction. Each organization will receive $30,000 for a total of $60,000. This is the highest donation from the proceeds of Charlotte Oktoberfest in the history of the Carolina BrewMasters.
“It was our pleasure.” said Benfield, “We feel like a monetary donation is a small part of what our real goal actually is. It was nice to be able to do something in addition to what the Guild would get free from us on the daily basis, anyway: our enthusiasm and support.”
Rick Benfield, President of the Carolina BrewMasters and David Gonzalez, Vice President of the North Carolina Brewers Guild, share a beer.
President of the North Carolina Brewers Guild, Jamie Bartholomaus of Foothills Brewing Company, and Vice President David Gonzalez of Rock Bottom Charlotte have both expressed their gratitude. “Together the NC Brewers Guild and the Carolina Brewmasters have teamed up to promote beer and brewing in North Carolina,” Gonzalez said, “The Carolina Brewmasters have shown their great support of North Carolina beer by hosting the Charlotte Oktoberfest beer festival for years, and their sizable donation to the NC Brewers Guild shows even further dedication.” Added Bartholomaus, “We look forward to working even more closely with the Carolina BrewMasters in the future to do great things for North Carolina beer.”
For more information on the Carolina Brewmasters, see http://www.carolinabrewmasters.com, on Charlotte Oktoberfest, see http://www.charlotteoktoberfest.com, and on the North Carolina Brewers Guild, see http://www.ncbeer.org.
