A Message from our Co-Founder Cristina (part 1)

After the hurricane cleared on Friday, 9/27, David and I made our way to the brewery with our little one in tow to assess any damage to the building. We live about 12 minutes away, and despite dozens of trees and powerlines down, we were finally able to make it to the building. At this point, power and water had stopped working, cell towers were down, and there was no way to easily communicate. The streets were full of long lines at the few gas stations that were operational. 

By the time we arrived at the brewery, the river had already overtaken Riverside Drive and was pooling into the intersection with Broadway. We had heard from our neighbor Dan of French Broad Chocolates that the water would peak at 8pm that evening, so we knew we needed to prepare for water to come into the space. 

Our amazing neighbors at Strength Ratio helped us move furniture out of the Tasting Room which is positioned on the wall right next to Riverside Drive. A glance out the window of the Tasting Room revealed that the water had already come up just below the window. In the hour that we were there, the river had already risen about two feet and was beginning to flood our dockspace. It was time to get our son home and out of harm’s way. 

David headed back to the building later that afternoon with a few of our neighbors and they were able to move more things out of our warehouse and elevate pallets to higher shelves. When the water started pouring into the space through the doors and up through the drains, they knew it was time to leave.  

It is an indescribable feeling to stand outside your business and feel completely and utterly helpless. To walk away and not know what you will find when you come back. 

Somehow, amazingly, the brewery only flooded about 6 inches. We were left with a muddy mess, but our building, equipment, and beer inventory was all intact when we came to check on Saturday morning. At this point due to the lack of cell and wifi, we had no idea of the scope of damage across WNC. It would be days and weeks before we would learn of the numerous lives lost, and all the beloved places and businesses destroyed by the river. 

It’s easy to feel helpless when you are surrounded by so much destruction. We focused on doing the small things that we could. Breweries typically always have thousands of gallons of clean water stored in tanks to be ready for a brew day, so we started kegging water and filling growlers for employees and neighbors, and continue to do so as Asheville works to get the water filtration system back online. 

Now, four weeks post storm, we are still working to put all the pieces back together. Demolition of affected drywall in our space began 12 days after the storm. We finally got power back on day 17. Our space has been pressure washed (multiple times). The bottling line is operational again. And today, for the first time since before the storm, we brewed ginger beer.