In the wake of Hurricane Helene, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company company is focused on ensuring its employees in Mills River, North Carolina, “are safe and accounted for,” while “still assessing” the damage sustained at the brewery, president and CEO Pryce Greenow told the company’s distributor partners on Tuesday.
“Communication in our area remains poor, and many are still without power, water, phone/internet, or fuel,” he wrote.
Although the “Mills River brewery did not experience major flooding, it did sustain some damage that we are still assessing,” Greenow added.
“The site was inaccessible for several days due to surrounding flooding and road conditions, and a skeleton crew worked tirelessly through the storm to maintain our systems as well as possible,” he wrote. “The impact on many others in the area has been devastating, and our hearts are with them as we all work to identify a path to recovery.”
Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman and Brian Grossman along with “a small team of specialists” are now at the brewery and “working to reestablish our brewing and packaging capabilities as soon as possible,” Greenow wrote.
In the interim, Sierra Nevada is increasing production at its Chico brewery. Sierra Nevada employees are also working to support team members in Mills River.
No “major service disruptions” are expected at this time, Greenow told distributor partners and its sales and supply chain teams will work with them to address issues.
The Mills River facility will remain closed for the time being.
“We look forward to welcoming the community again when it is safe to do so,” the company shared in a media statement.
“The impact on many others in the area has been catastrophic, and our hearts are with them as we all work to identify a path to recovery,” the company continued. “If you would like to contribute to the relief effort, please consider contributing to the Red Cross and World Central Kitchen.”
New Belgium Warns Distributors of Order Disruptions in Wake of Hurricane Helene
Published on October 1.
New Belgium Brewing sent an update to distributor partners today following closure of the brewery’s Asheville facilities due to Hurricane Helene.
The company has made contact with and confirmed the safety of all of its Asheville-based staff.
Access to the brewery’s campus and production facilities is limited and recovery efforts are expected “to take quite a bit of time,” a company spokesperson shared with Brewbound. The Liquid Center and distribution center were “fortunate enough to not be breached by the record-setting flood waters,” but the brewery itself has “suffered significant water damage, although not as much as we originally feared based on photographs,” the spokesperson said.
They added: “With this in mind, we want to be transparent that we expect there to be disruptions to our order fulfillment capabilities at minimum over the course of the next several weeks. Our teams will be doing everything we can to mitigate these disruptions to the best of our ability and we are considering every option to do so.”
New Belgium CEO Shaun Belongie addressed wholesalers in a meeting this morning: “We are approaching this work in true New Belgium fashion – people first, as we urgently work to support our coworkers’ critical needs.
“Our teams are entirely focused on recovery efforts, both for our coworkers and our operations as a brewery. This will be an evolving situation over the coming weeks, and we appreciate our partners’ patience and understanding as we all do our best to communicate swiftly yet effectively, develop action plans to restore operations, and make smart decisions for our coworkers and the business moving forward.”
New Origin Will ‘Likely Never Be Able to Rebuild’ Asheville Brewery
Published on October 1.
New Origin Brewing’s facilities in Asheville, North Carolina have been devastated by Hurricane Helene, reducing the brewery to “essentially a pile of rubble.”
New Origin shared an update on Instagram, and said they will “likely never be able to rebuild” the brewery at the location, and are “working on next steps.”
The company has set up a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of raising $300,000. The money will be used to pay debt owed. So far, $14,855 has been raised.
New Origin founders Dan Juhnke and Brian Fetting wrote on the campaign page: “We fought as hard as we could with sandbags and water pumps ready. But we were no match. What we had made and given everything to, was now a pile of blocks and twisted metal.
“We had always thought that insurance would cover something like that. We were devastated to learn that was not the case for us. We’re in a location that we can not build our building in again due to city codes. Without a building and all of our equipment missing, destroyed, and scattered through the river we now have nothing to our name other than an empty lot and a large debt owed to the bank.”
Hurricane Helene Aftermath Devastates Asheville NC-Area Breweries
Published on September 30.
Several Asheville, North Carolina-area breweries are closed due to devastating flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which wrought destruction across the southeast after making landfall in Florida on Thursday.
Asheville-headquartered Hi-Wire Brewing shared a photo of its main facility underwater at 1 p.m. on Friday. The multi-state taproom operator’s four Asheville locations are closed until further notice, and employees at other locations will be working on relief efforts, Hi-Wire wrote on Instagram.
Burial Beer hosted a free cookout for community members at its South Slope taproom on Sunday, the brewery announced.
Highland Brewing, the first craft brewery to open in Asheville, is closed until further notice.
More than 100 people are dead in Helene’s wake, and many affected areas are without power or cell service, according to the Associated Press. Expect further Brewbound coverage this week as relief efforts take shape.