The Southeast has moved from rescue to now, starting that long job of recovery and rebuilding post-Hurricane Helene. One of the industries closely tied to agriculture that took a direct hit was North Carolina’s craft brewing industry. Lisa Parker is executive director of the NC Craft Brewing Guild, and says a quarter of the Tar Heel state’s brewers were in the path of the storm.

“Some of our breweries were completely gutted by the flooding. Some of our breweries were flooded and have a lot of clean up and rebuilding to do, but the majority of our breweries lost power and water for some extended period of time. Our Asheville area and surrounding-area breweries are still waiting on potable water. It’s hard to be a brewery without potable water.”

And to help those brewers get back on their feet, the guild is taking steps.

“The North Carolina craft beer industry has just opened up a 501(c)3 not-for-profit foundation called the NC Craft Brewers Foundation, and its initial mission will be to provide hardship grants for business recovery to those impacted breweries of western North Carolina.”

Parker says through the Pouring for Neighbors initiative, there’s already been a tremendous outPOURING of support.

“Many of our breweries and other industry businesses that are participating in Pouring for Neighbors are going to be donating funds raised from that initiative to the foundation. And we currently have over 300 businesses participating in Pouring for Neighbors in 33 states and territories, including the Virgin Islands.”

Find out more at drinkncbeer.org.