Apologies on the lack of posting, moving is rather time consuming.

Great American Beer Festival doesn’t drive customers as much as in days passed. However it remains a good indicator of a brewery’s quality. 15 awards for North Carolina is a great turn out. South Carolina received 2 awards. You can find all the winners here.

The other big story in the last month is that Middleberry is closing its brewing group. The group is made up of Deutsche Beverage + Process, Ss Brewtech and Wild Goose Filling brands. Deutsche was based in Charlotte, so hence a Carolina connection. Their brewhouses and fermenters can be found in many Carolina breweries. Wild Goose canning lines are industry standard and very reliable. Ss Brewtech makes a variety of equipment from homebrew steel fermenters up to small boutique brewpub systems. The brewhouse cuts don’t surprise me given the glut of equipment on the used market currently and tariffs. Canning lines are a little tougher to find, but administratively if you eliminate 2, I can understand why choose not to continue the 3rd operationally.

Southern Brewing News has the latest edition out.

We start with more local coverage out West with the announcement of 3 decades of Highland Brewing’s Cold Mountain release. We also heard about collaboration for Cellarest Beer Project with Riverbend Malt and Coffee Library. NC State’s hop program gets some coverage, it won’t ever be a big agriculture product for the state, but it would be interesting to be brewing with local hops..

In Charlotte we see reporting of a second lawsuit against Legion Brewing.

Out in the Triangle Congratulations to Fullsteam for re-opening in downtown Durham, it’s a great space, while not finished when the Pop the Cap celebration was hosted there recently it was obvious to be a quirky unique space that was well suited to Fullsteam’s personality.

For Events the NC Brewers Guild is hosting a beer garden at the State Fair so stop by and support your local breweries. In addition this week NoDa celebrates 15 years and Charlston has their beer festival.