USA, NC: Bearwaters Brewing to reopen in Canton

It's a decision that's been nearly five months in the making after severe storms flooded out Canton's Bearwaters Brewing multiple times over the past three years, WLOS reported on February 21.

While the choice has been made to reopen, the location will feature a new look and focus.

When Bearwaters reopens, owners said the beer won't be brewed on-site any longer, but rather, at Greenman Brewing in Asheville, then transported to Canton, enabling the facility to have more emphasis on outdoor recreation.

"Shifting the focus of the building into that I think, makes a lot of sense," said Kevin Sandefur.

He and partner Art O’Neil thought they might be out of the water after reestablishing their brewery following Tropical Storm Fred's flooding in the summer of 2021; but then came Helene.

"The volume of water and the damage that was done here was a lot more significant than Fred," Sandefur said.

Helene swamped their business, again.

"At one time we had north of 90 employees full-time here and now, we're down to 26," he said.

Sandefur said after two flood insurance claims in three years, he and his business partner had to pose and consider key questions.

"Can we operate this business with any degree of confidence that we won't have another significant event in the near future?" Sandefur said.

The answer is selling off equipment and forming a partnership to make Bearwaters beer at Green Man Brewing.

"That takes that liability out of this property. But it allows us to still continue to make great products with another very reputable, well-known craft beer brand," Sandefur said. "A joint venture or partnership format or some kind of collaborative effort I think makes sense going forward to minimize the exposure and the risk that we might see going forward."

"They have plenty of capacity to produce our products," said O'Neil.

"Since they have a really nice canning facility, packaging facility — migrate back into cans which will be much more user-friendly for the river activities," said Sandefur.

Both Bearwaters and Green Man beers will be available in Canton and the existing facility will pivot to a bigger recreation focus right along the Pigeon River.

"We're also creating a strategic alliance with Cold Mountain Adventures, which is an all-female owned, outdoor adventure group primarily tubing, but they're expanding into kayaking and upriver tours," O'Neil said.

Sandefur said the strategic business model change dovetails with Haywood County's focus on recreation.

"Haywood County is a natural, I think, fit for replacing some of the lost activities that you'll see over in the Buncombe area," he said. "With the re-development of the mill, this, I think, will become even more recreationally driven."

Sandefur and O'Neil say collaboration is in the spirit of the craft brewery industry a key ingredient now.

"Canton needs businesses to stay strong, stay put," said O'Neil.

"So, this is a great full-circle story," said Sandefur.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .