We’re excited to kick off the main feature of Know Your Brewer: the interviews!

Our goal is to get you — yep, you — to ponder one simple question. Do you know who brews your beer? Since only around 1 percent of all beer consumed in North Carolina is brewed here in North Carolina, we’re guessing that most of  you don’t. That’s okay…don’t worry. This isn’t a guilt trip.

It’s just that we’d like to change that. Through these interviews, we’d like for you to discover and appreciate your local North Carolina brewer, just like many in generations past knew their neighborhood baker, fishmonger, florist, and milkman. It shouldn’t be that difficult: around 9 out of 10 North Carolinians live within 10 minutes of a locally-brewed beer.

By interviewing and featuring your neighbors who brew beer for a living, we truly hope that you’ll become a part of that crowd who personally knows a North Carolina craft brewer. Who orders a local North Carolina beer. Who gives a local beer as a gift to a friend or family member…or recommends it to a neighbor.  And, when at a bar or restaurant, who regularly asks, “What local beer do you serve?”

May this be a New Old Era: an age where we get to know the craftsmen and women whose careers depend on your interest in and loyalty toward locally-brewed beer.

Buy local, support your local brewery, and Know Your Brewer. Our first interview is with Drew Barton, head brewer at Asheville’s French Broad Brewing Company.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: fg, interview