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ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — With 45 breweries in planning around North Carolina, dozens of others growing exponentially each year, tens of thousands of square feet of vacant warehouse space in a community ripe for development, and three men eager and ready to build a first-of-its-kind craft beer campus, it might seem like serendipity is surrounding the Rocky Mount Brewmill.
The news leaked out in May – that the Capitol Broadcasting-owned 140-year-old textile mill in rural Rocky Mount will be transformed into an incubator for startup craft breweries, a contract production facility for growing breweries, a destination for lovers of craft beer, a school for those who wish to study the industry and a residential community for people who work on the campus.
It will bring life back to a economically-troubled old town and celebrate an industry already bringing national recognition to North Carolina. In a Wall Street Journal story earlier this month, our state ( and its now 110 breweries) was recognized in the top 10 for craft brewing.