The Loading Bay: Disused whisky warehouse finds new purpose as skate park, culture hub

What was once an empty whisky warehouse, where skaters would be shooed off by local authorities for riding on the building’s features, now serves as a 30,000 square-foot hub for the sport and urban culture in north Glasgow.

The Loading Bay, a project in Port Dundas run by Scottish Canals, is a large indoor skate park and culture hub that makes use of an outmoded spirits depot under ownership by the canal authority.

Phil Wilson, manager of The Loading Bay, said: “There's never been an indoor skate park of this kind in Glasgow. The overall reception has been really positive.”

Wilson, active in the skating scene of Glasgow for many years, said the park used to be exactly the type of place that he and his friends would be run off from when they were growing up.

The park, opened to riders and skaters in late November, held its official opening event on Saturday.

The event hosted park managers, representatives from Scottish Canals, an MSP, a city councillor and even an after-party hosted by Glasgow culture magazine The Skinny.

Wilson stated that the space draws big names in skating and BMX to the area and he views the culture surrounding the sport as more about camaraderie than competing against others.

“For most people who participate in these activities, it’s not so much about the competitive aspects of it. It’s about the community and it’s about having fun and egging each other on to accomplish your goals.”

— Phil Wilson, manager at The Loading Bay

He said: “For most people who participate in these activities, it’s not so much about the competitive aspects of it. It’s about the community and it’s about having fun and egging each other on to accomplish your goals. That’s what really keeps people in this. It’s about the way we all treat each other and boost each other up. It keeps things really positive.”

Bob Doris, MSP for Maryhill and Springburn as well as Glasgow City Councillor Robert Mooney of the Canal Ward were both in attendance to see how the local government is able to provide a space for young people in the skating community and others in their constituencies. 

Doris said: “I think this is an amazing facility. I know this is a city-wide facility but it’s right on our doorstep of Maryhill and Springburn and it really benefits young people because it encourages them to participate in a really positive physical activity.”

With the Pinkston Watersports park nearby, Doris claimed that it will put Maryhill and Springburn on the map as “an action sports destination for the Glasgow area and beyond.”

TODDLER TESTING Coronavirus Scotland: Children under age of five can now get Covid-19 test as Scottish nurseries reopen

CHILDREN under five years old can be tested for Covid-19 from tomorrow as Scottish nurseries and childcare services emerge from lockdown.

The move was announced today by Nicola Sturgeon at the daily coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh.

Kids under five can get Covid-19 tests from tomorrow with Scotland's nurseries set to reopen (STOCK IMAGE)

The First Minister said: “This is a step which is designed to prevent families from having to self-isolate unnecessarily if young children develop symptoms.

"Something which we think is increasingly important as childcare resumes."

Previously, this age group was not allowed access to testing outside of clinical settings.

Interim Chief Medical Officer Gregor Smith added that this type of testing is important because of the reopening of childcare centres.

He said: “I would encourage anyone who has symptoms of Covid-19 or whose child has symptoms, to get a test immediately to help us suppress the spread of the virus.”

Dr. Smith said that children are very unlikely to have severe symptoms or to pass the virus on to adults, but stressed that they should still be tested if they show symptoms to avoid unnecessary isolation.

Adults and carers will be able to book a test for a child, Dr Smith said, by going to the NHS Inform website or calling 0800 028 2816.

It comes as no Scots died overnight from the virus for the fifth day in a row, meaning Scotland's death toll remains at 2,491.

There have been 22 new cases in the last 24 hours, the majority of them coming from Lanarkshire, where there has been an outbreak at a call centre.

Ms Sturgeon revealed “at least some” of the new cases announced today “are likely to be connected” to the outbreak at the Sitel centre in Motherwell, which is being used for NHS England's Test and Trace.

And Education Secretary John Swinney confirmed a final decision on reopening Scotland's schools in August will be made on July 30.

Study shows that sparsely populated areas of Scottish Islands could diminish by up to 25 percent

A study published earlier this year shows further evidence of a sinking population in most Scottish island communities. 

The research, conducted by the James Hutton Institute, predicts that the population of the sparsely populated areas of these islands will diminish by up to 25 percent by 2046.

Researchers Andrew Copus and Jonathan Hopkins looked at data from population census records from 1991, 2001 and 2011 as well as a number of other indicators to formulate their projections.

Hopkins said: “We used a number of statistical models to formulate this data.

“The models we used have been tried and tested on a number of other similar projects and have proved to be very reliable.” 

The projections are based on estimated population numbers that are broken up into five-year chunks which start in 2011 and end in 2046

Communities such as the Western Isles and Argyll and Bute will be the most severely affected according to the study.

Projections show that these two areas are expected to lose up to 30 percent of the number of residents from the 2011 census.

Hopkins said: “The main reason for these lower population figures is the lack of affordable housing on the islands.

“That, coupled with the limited job opportunities on the islands means that it’s hard for people to have a reason to move to the islands.

Copus and Hopkins used indicators such as population estimates from National Record Scotland to support their projections.

Hopkins said one of the biggest detriments to accurately reporting on these statistics is that there is a lack of data. The official census records only occur once every ten years and the census for 2021 has been pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hopkins said: “I’ve come at the issue from a very quantitative perspective and when you look at only the numbers, it shows a very negative outlook for these island communities.

“But in the meantime, my colleagues here at The James Hutton Institute have heard many stories of anecdotal evidence of population resurgence in the exact same areas where our research is showing a decline.

“It’s easy to sit here and dismiss this evidence as simply ‘anecdotal’ but as a human geographer, we have to pay attention to the stories of the people we’re studying as well.

“The difference between the stories we’re hearing and the figures we’re looking at means that this has been a very interesting topic to cover and we’re interested to see how the future census numbers change our research,”

The anecdotal evidence that Hopkins is referring to comes from the Islands Revival Project. Another researcher at the Hutton Institute, Ruth Wilson, led the project.

The purpose of the project was to gather qualitative evidence of population resurgence on the islands by getting the community involved through sharing written stories on a website that the study had set up.

The site hosts writings from communities all across the islands which highlight positive topics of population increase and look at projects within these communities that aim to battle the problem of population decline.

The project was part of a collaboration by The James Hutton Institute, the Scottish Government and Scotland’s Rural College.

Copus has since left the institute, but Hopkins said he is continuing the research and plans to release new figures which analyze much newer data from 2018 and project the population figures out to 2043.

One of the most interesting factors of the research according to Hopkins, is that Copus was able to use data from the projections to predict the number of people that would need to join the population on the islands in order for the declination to subside.

Their calculations found that just 1,300 people would need to move to the sparsely populated areas of the islands in order to counteract the issue.

Hopkins said: “The real issue isn’t necessarily the number of people we need to get to the islands, but rather where they’re going to live and work once they get there.”

The James Hutton Institute plans to release updated statistics on this issue later this year.

Crowd fills Madison County board meeting to discuss proposed asphalt plant

MARSHALL - Dozens of opponents of a proposed asphalt plant urged the Madison County Board of Commissioners to consider a moratorium on industrial zoning permits at the board's Tuesday meeting.

About 300 people on both sides of the issue crowded the meeting at the A-B Tech Madison campus. The main auditorium quickly filled to capacity; others were asked to watch a video simulcast shown in an adjacent room.

Donnie Reed, owner and operator of French Broad Paving adresses the Madison County Board of Commissioners Feb. 12. Reed's company intends to build an asphalt plant in Madison County and the proposal sparked a long discussion amongst the public.

The asphalt plant, which would occupy a leased space at McCrary Stone Service quarry, is a project by French Broad Paving, a Madison County-based paving company owned and operated by Donnie and T.J. Reed. The Reeds submitted applications for zoning permits earlier this month so they could move forward with the process of building the facility.

"I started this company in 1997, with my son and a small loan," Donnie Reed said at the meeting. "Now, I am trying to grow that business further by constructing an asphalt plant here in Madison County."

French Broad Paving employees and family members showed support by wearing bright yellow shirts and hoodies brandishing the company's logo, while those opposing the plant held signs citing potential risks to residents' health and tax income from tourism and wore buttons with "No Asphalt Plant" written on them.

Asphalt plant wasn't on the agenda

Donnie Hall, Madison County's attorney, cautioned before the public comment section of the meeting that the Board of Commissioners had no plans to talk about the proposed plant as commissioners had no influence on the zoning process as a result of county ordinances adopted 10 years prior.

"This is not the proper forum for that process," Hall said. "Because these are not the folks making that decision."

Hall stressed that the zoning proposal already made it to the county's zoning board and any opponents of the proposal would need to attend the quasi-judicial hearing, which the Madison County Board of Adjustments holds if they wanted to provide evidence in an attempt to negate or support it.

"This forum was created so that people in the community could let it be known about issues affecting them," Hall said.

Out of the crowd, 30 people voiced their opinion either for or against the construction of the plant. Each member of the public was given three minutes to speak their mind.

Janet Spivey and Ellie Pinkham hold signs protesting the proposed asphalt plant during the Board of Commissioners meeting. The main lecture hall at the A-B Tech Madison campus was filled to capacity and others wishing to view the meeting were put into an overflow room down the hall.

Air quality raised as a concern

Along with concerns about environmental pollution, opponents cited lowered property values and a risk to the tourism industry as their main qualms with the facility.

"I live half a mile from the proposed location," said Marshall resident Emily Sontag. "I spoke with people that live near a similar plant in Weaverville and from what I've heard, I'm worried about a plant like this being built so close to my home."

Sontag said she heard reports from Weaverville residents of year-round odors from the plant, fumes that would sting residents eyes and constant noise pollution from trucks and heavy machinery operating in the area.

Members of the public gather at the A-B Tech Madison campus Feb. 12 to attend the Madison County Board of Commissioners meeting. 30 people use the meeting's public comment section to discuss the effects of a propsed asphalt plant just outside of downtown Marshall.

French Broad Paving invited Mona Brandon, a senior environmental scientist for TRC Environmental, to speak about the proposed plant and the predicted impacts it could have on the environment.

"The North Carolina legislature has set strict guidelines outlining the allowable amount of pollution that asphalt plants such as the one French Broad Paving is proposing should be allowed to produce at any given time," Brandon said. "The estimates that factor into the approval process for these types of facilities assume that the plant would be running 24/7. The estimated air quality of the emissions of this proposed plant fall well within those regulations."

A request for a moratorium

Ellen Holmes Pearson, a Marshall resident and member of Sustainable Madison, was one of the first of many opposing the plant. She presented the idea of a temporary moratorium on industrial zoning permits so the county's zoning board could take more time to examine factors surrounding safety and environmental impact of all industrial zoning permit requests before granting permits like the ones requested by French Broad Paving.

"We suggest that we create a Madison County Environmental Council to deal with these sorts of issues," Holmes Pearson said. "There are still yet too many unknowns to move forward with this process."

None of the members of the Board of Commissioners made any statements regarding the asphalt plant or any other issues spoken about during the public comment section of the meeting.

The application for the asphalt plant now must go through the zoning procedures and the Board of Adjustments before it is approved and building of the facility can commence.

School lunch programs becoming more essential for North Carolina families

Child nutrition assistant Denise Ballentine passes out lunches to pre-K students at Blue Ridge School in Cashiers. The Jackson County school is one of the few in the state with a public pre-K program. Since the school also qualifies for a blanket free-lunch program for all attendees, pre-K students benefit from the same free lunch as the rest of the children.

A majority of North Carolina parents lack the financial resources to provide school lunches for their children without assistance, according to federal data, a situation that has worsened in recent years.

Most children in North Carolina participate in the National School Lunch Program, which provides free and reduced-price school lunches to families facing financial hardship. In the 2016-17 school year, 59.8 percent of public school students in the state received lunches through this program, according to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. That’s 10 percentage points higher than the level of participation a decade earlier.

Projections from North Carolina public school administrators for the 2018-19 school year show that a high percentage of students will continue to benefit from the program, provided they apply, which they must do each year.

While some parents make a conscious decision not to participate in the lunch program despite being eligible, school nutrition experts across the state told Carolina Public Press that lack of knowledge about the program or forgetting to reapply are the biggest reasons that children miss out on the meals.

“One of the biggest problems I’ve seen is that parents don’t know that they have to reapply every year for the free and reduced lunch program,” said Rebecca Bryan, an administrator with Child Nutrition Services for the Wake County Public School System.

The school district in Wake County is the largest in the state and their percentage of students enrolled in the program largely reflects the same ratio as the state as a whole. All parents of students in the district are sent information at the beginning of every school year about how to apply for free or reduced school lunches.

“It’s really easy to apply online,” Bryan said. “If they don’t apply before the start of the school year, their child only receives a couple of days worth of free lunch before they’re served alternative meals mainly consisting of just fruits and vegetables. I really urge all of the parents that need it to apply.”

Second-grade assistant Kari Reed keeps the eating area clean as students eat their lunch at Blue Ridge School in Cashiers in Jackson County.

According to Jeff Wyant, assistant principal at Blue Ridge School, a public pre-K through early college school located in Cashiers in Jackson County, the breakfasts and lunches that some students receive at the small rural school are the only meals they will eat that day.

“The free and reduced lunch program we provide is really beneficial to the people of our community,” Wyant said. “We’re what you would call a high-needs school. A lot of the jobs in this area are seasonal and families can’t afford to pay for school lunches every day.”

Blue Ridge School is registered under the Community Eligibility Provision program provided by the federal government. Their enrollment in this program means that a high enough percentage of the school’s students would have qualified for free or reduced lunch that the school is issued a blanket grant which ensures none of their students need to pay for school lunches.

“We only have around 400 students and the CEP program just makes it easier on everyone,” said Tina Coggins, child nutrition manager for Blue Ridge School. “We’ve been a part of the program for four years and we’ll reapply after it runs out at the end of this year.”

While Blue Ridge School is one of only two schools that qualify for the CEP program in the Jackson County School District, other districts in the state apply as a whole so that all of their schools can benefit.

“It really creates less burden as a district,” said Amy Stanley, director of nutrition services at Bladen County Schools and president of the School Nutrition Association of North Carolina. “When all of our schools qualify under the district, we gain a lot of benefits. There’s no parents need to fill out applications, there’s no stigma surrounding getting a free lunch for the students and there’s no unpaid charges.”

According to Stanley, despite the school lunches that students in the Bladen County Schools district receive being of no cost to families, they have all of the same varieties of foods that are available in other districts across the state and follow all of the same United States Department of Agriculture Guidelines.

“There’s been a move towards less processed food in school lunches, but many schools don’t have the necessary budgets to make lunches healthier,” said Amelia Huelskamp, assistant professor at the School of Health and Applied Human Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. “In the past, the contents of school lunches used to be focused strongly on processed food and meats such as poultry and pork. There’s been some upset from parents because schools are moving away from more of these ‘traditional’ foods.”

While many parents are upset that their children will not receive the same school lunches that they were used to because of more stringent nutrition standards, data shows even more parents are worried about their children not receiving any lunch at all.

Child Nutrition Assistant Elena Alcanter serves lunch to high school students at Blue Ridge School in Cashiers. All students at Blue Ridge School eat free as a part of the federal Community Eligibility Provision program.

March for Our Lives: Students organize march against gun violence

One high school student addresses a crowd of thousands at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in downtown Asheville. Through tears she reads the names of the victims of the school shooting she survived.

Student protesters carry 17 candles to commemorate the people who died in the Parkland shooting during a march on College St. March 25. The crowd of thousands makes up March for Our Lives Asheville, a sister march to the larger movement by the same name occurring the same day in Washington D.C., as well as in other cities across the country. The march responds to the mass shooting which took place at a high school in Florida Feb. 14.

The student, Anna Dittman of Parkland, Florida, is a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a mass shooting claimed the lives of 17 students and staff in mid-February.

“I remember running away from the school terrified as my classmates jumped over the fence to get away from the gunfire,” Dittman said. “I eventually found my sister and we hugged and held each other, happy that we were safe.”

Dittman spoke Saturday as part of March for Our Lives Asheville, a rally and march set up by local high school students to respond to the shooting in Parkland, raise awareness of stricter gun control laws and advocate for voting into office representatives and officials that support those views.

“After the Parkland shooting, we felt that we could no longer be sitting down. We had to rise up and say what we felt about this issue,” said Aryelle Jacobsen, a senior from A.C. Reynolds High School and one of the student organizers of the event. “We felt like there's such a power to bring our community together and discuss a big prevalent issue and so it was just really gathering together with the students and knowing that enough is enough.”

The march coincided with the larger March for Our Lives event which occured in Washington, D.C. the same day.

“We were ready to stand up and say something. We were ready to stand up and march. My friends were ready to go up to Washington and stand for what we believe in,” Dittman said. “And it's all of us. And with you guys joining it's become a much bigger thing. We're ready for that.”

The march started in Pack Square Park, travelled east along College St. and then south down Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., where it culminated at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. The march attracted thousands of students, teachers and supporters.

“I have seen a change in students’ attitudes about guns in school and doing a lot more of saying something if they see something,” said Lindsay Kosmala-Furst, one of the main speakers in the rally and an educator within the Buncombe County School system for the past decade.

Kosmala-Furst said the event emphasized how America can tackle the problem of gun control and can work through their differences to help make schools a safer place for learning.

“I think this march is going to send a message,” said Lauren Cavagnini, a senior from A.C. Reynolds High School. “And since this is a bipartisan march, hopefully it will bring unity and cause a dialog on how we need to start having these common-sense gun laws in our schools and our communities.”

Tents set up in the park gave supporters the chance to speak with local community advocates, with one tent set up so supporters could easily register to vote. Dakota Sipe, a sophomore from Brevard High School, registered to vote for the first time in his life and cited issues like gun control as reasons for his registration.

“I wanted to support the movement of banning weapons of that are easily accessible to the general population,” Sipe said.

Jacobsen stressed the fight for safe schools is not close to over. She said people can incite change quickly and effectively through voting in officials who will support stricter gun control.

“I think what this rally is going to do for the Asheville community is to unite us together,” Jacobsen said. “So we can join as one to get more local legislation to make sure there's no more gun violence. There's a local sheriff's election coming up real soon and we want to advocate for people to come out and go vote for that. It’s really important that we move forward with this change.”

 

Hendersonville brewery raises community morale and provides sanctuary for animals

By Nick Haseloff

Most breweries focus only on producing beer, but one small brewery in Hendersonville is looking to strengthen their community and give shelter to animals in need while crafting unique and modern brews.

Patrons mingle at the bar at Sanctuary Brewing in downtown Hendersonville. The brewery opened its doors two years ago with the mission of animal advocacy and community empowerment.

Photo by Nick Haseloff

Sanctuary Brewing Company opened its doors two years ago, and from the start, the owners decided to create an atmosphere that was different from many breweries in the area. Lisa McDonald and Joe Dinan are co-owners of the brewery and said that they knew from the start that they were going to accomplish more than just brewing beer.

“We have this unique social responsibility and this community-driven focus,” McDonald said. “It started out with animal advocacy and then grew from there.”

Lisa McDonald

Co-Founder and Co-Owner of Sanctuary Brewing

McDonald and Dinan said they moved to Western North Carolina from Chicago and created a animal sanctuary on the three acres they lived on. They started with just a few dogs but their farm quickly grew to 13 animals of all shapes and sizes.

“The farm is only a couple miles from the brewery so it’s nice to be able to go back and forth and check on the chickens or play with our pig,” McDonald said.

The animal sanctuary they created earned its 501(c)(3) status as a non-profit organization recently and McDonald said she looks forward to what the future has to bring. They plan to develop their animal care efforts alongside their brewery.

“This new designation is really good news for us and means that we can expand our animal care even further,” McDonald said.

When Dinan and McDonald set out to open their brewery in 2015, they wanted to form a business that could support their animal care efforts and vice versa. They named the brewery Sanctuary as an homage to their message.

“Since the day we opened, we’ve kind of looked towards the community instead of towards ourselves,” McDonald said.

The brewery is host to an animal adoption event every week and a multitude of other events that center around the community throughout the year she said. Some of the events include yoga with cats, live music, benefits for local non-profits, trivia nights and a weekly community meal that is provided free of charge.

“The whole idea of Sanctuary goes a step further, as this is a safe haven for people that might not be accepted in other places,” McDonald said. “We’re very open minded. I didn’t think this town would ever have a place like this. I think it’s easy to gravitate to this place because it creates a sense of warmth and happiness and kindness.”

Events focused on people hosted at the brewery center around people that are marginalized or need help getting back on their feet. The philanthropic nature of the brewery makes it unlike many of its peers.

“The brewery here has become much more than a place to come in for a couple beers,” Dinan said. “It’s a meeting spot, it’s a spot for families to come, it’s a place for people ages 8 to 80 to come.”

Dinan and McDonald attribute their altruistic approach to business to their success in the community. They said many of the patrons of the brewery are regulars and often participate in the events they host.

“There are a lot of breweries that make good beer,” said Troy Colbert, blogger, beer fanatic and frequent patron of Sanctuary Brewing Company. “What sets Sanctuary Brewing Company apart is that they make fantastic beer and through their animal rights activism and their strong community ties have an eye on making the world a better place. They have made Hendersonville a better place to live.”

Dinan, who acts as head brewer, said the beer they brew is made to suit many different tastes and works off of seasonal flavors and ingredients.

“About half of the beer is something seasonal or a staple and the other half is just stuff I’m interested in brewing,” Dinan said. “I’m just trying to put out a consistently good product that is pushing the envelope of the scene.”

Dinan said the brewery tries to support the community in their brewing as well. When possible, the brewery purchases fresh ingredients from local farmers.

“We try and go local as often as possible but it can be tricky,” Dinan said. “Sometimes you want to brew a beer with something that’s out of season locally. But when we can, we try and get our ingredients from around us.”

Sanctuary Brewing Company also supports other local breweries in the community. Black Star Line Brewing opened shop last month in Hendersonville and Founder L.A. McCrae said the help they received was pivotal in their success.

“Joe and Lisa have been a huge help in starting up Black Star Line,” McCrae said. “They’ve really devoted a lot of themselves to helping us get started.”

Dinan attributes most of his success in brewing to time he spent in other breweries learning the trade. He said the best thing new breweries can do is to get as much experience as possible before they start.

“It’s stressful as hell opening up a brewery,” Dinan said. “And the more you can prepare yourself for that first year, by working at another place or learning in a program, the better chance you’ll have.”

Dinan and McDonald said that they don’t think there will be a limit to the number of breweries that the economy can support in Western North Carolina.

“Nobody ever talks about coffee house saturation or roastery saturation and there’s probably triple if not quadruple what there is in coffee compared to breweries,” McDonald said.

They are thrilled to see new breweries popping up in the surrounding area and welcome newcomers in Hendersonville as well.

“Our doors are always open. So if anybody ever has a question, if they want to come in here and intern, if they want to come in here and learn or need advice, we’re here,” Dinan said.

Local entrepreneur sets out to expand and empower minority community through brewing

By Nick Haseloff

A resilient, black second-grader protests with classmates and staff in the lunchroom of Ring Factory Elementary in Bel Air, Maryland. The sit-in takes place during Black History Month in the early ‘90s at a predominantly white and middle-class school as the protester lays out a series of demands for better pay for the lunch staff and janitors and more reasonable accommodations for the students during recess.

Founder and Owner of Black Star Line Brewing L.A. McCrae works at their dining room table turned desk, planning the future of their brewery.

Photo by Nick Haseloff

That young protester, now a lifelong activist, continues the fight by opening a brewery this month in downtown Hendersonville, which promises to help build the community by empowering minority peoples.

“From a very early age I was active in organizing activism,” said L.A. McCrae, 31, chief values officer, founder and brew creative for Black Star Line Brewing Co. “I’ve been doing this for what feels like forever.”

McCrae, who goes by they/them pronouns, said they will work their whole life to enact change in the communities they are a part of. Through the experiences they have had in their life, they are developing social and business models for a brewery that changes people's lives.

“At this point, I’m really focussing on what could be considered creating pathways out of poverty for my people,” McCrae said. “Whoever the ‘my people’ are. You know, black folks, queer folks, women, etc. And I’m looking at the ways that we can use our skills and our knowledge and our heritage to really solidify liberation in a world that often does not want to see us as liberated.”

McCrae said the best way they can think to enact change involves disrupting the traditional beer industry and bringing to life a brewery which does more than just brews beer, but also rattles the normal approach to community activism.

“There are ways the brewing industry is exclusive both by design and just de facto,” McCrae said. “So when I think about going into a brewery, I have to be prepared for white conversations. Someone there is going to be talking about Donald Trump. There’s generally white music, white beer. It’s mostly bitter. So for me, thinking about what it means to create a brewery of the people, by the people. That, to me, is living, acting and embodying what I feel like are at times are bullshit principles.”

McCrae is not happy with how the current brewing industry moves forward, they said. They intend to disrupt the industry by producing a series of beers that cater to a wider variety of people.

“It’s about being reflective of us; having sweet beers,” McCrae said. “It’s unapologetically asserting our worth, asserting our value and helping us to feel really grounded in an industry that’s often exploitative.”

People currently recognize the brand and McCrae as the same entity, they said. But they hope that people can separate that image over time.

“For any entrepreneur that’s a start-up, you are the brand at first,” McCrae said. “But I really hope that people take a look and peel layers to the onion and get to know and understand Black Star Line.”

They want people to understand the meaning behind the brewery, they said. They want the community to grasp the idea and run with it, so that it becomes bigger than what it started out as.

“Arriving at this moment with Black Star Line Brewing, it’s definitely for me, a pathway of ministry, as crazy as that sounds,” McCrae said. “But really connecting people and having the ability to do something awesome that people on the ground are really excited about. This is the people’s brewery and I’m really just a reflection of that.”

McCrae relies heavily on the support from their friends in their community as they venture into opening their own brewery. Ekua Adisa, a healing artist, ritual performer and liberationist from Atlanta, said she feels confident McCrae will succeed because of the many positive facets of their personality.

“L.A. is extremely persistent in pursuing their dreams and has a magical ability to navigate setbacks better than anyone I have ever met,” Adisa said. “They might just be the most resilient person on the planet.”

Despite the positive points of McCrae’s personality, they still have some setbacks to get through. They said they emphasize the importance of self-care in times that are stressful.

“We all have these shadow sides,” McCrae said. “Being able to be real enough and be honest enough, and transparent enough and authentic enough with the folks who are in your support network and centering self-care and healing. And there’s no deadline, no beer that’s more important than me being well.”

McCrae said the pressure of time acts as the most abundant issue for the brewery and themself currently. Their brewery opens in two weeks and McCrae said they are scrambling to get everything done in time.

“This clock has started ticking. The brewery is going to open in a matter of weeks and I have no clue how that’s going to happen but it’s going to happen,” McCrae said. “And then I’m going to be in it and behind a bar.”

McCrae’s worries while opening a brewery were felt by many other brewers in the past. Oscar Wong, 77, founded the first brewery in the area, Highland Brewing, in 1994 and said the things he learned from starting a brewery over 20 years ago still apply today.

“When we started out, we were trying to sell the idea of craft beer. What we have now is a whole culture that is accepting,” Wong said. “The advice I would give smaller breweries is no different from how we started. They need to have quality, consistency and to find something that’s specialized.”

McCrae said they found speciality in creating sweet beers that cater more toward an African palette. McCrae met Wong and they said they can draw many parallels from how they both got their start.

“I would not have been able to be opening Black Star Line had it not been for Oscar,” McCrae said.  “I think there’s a certain sense of dogged perseverance in the face of oppression and the face of discrimination that I assume I share with Oscar and really holding his sense of integrity and values core and building something that his family could be a part of.”

McCrae spent most of their life in resistance, going against the majority head-on and dealing with the consequences. They want the climate surrounding Black Star Line to be different.

“I no longer want to be in resistance. I don’t know what your political beliefs are, I don’t care to know. Can we share a beer together? Can we talk and connect as people?” McCrae said. “I’ve watched and witnessed folks be in resistance to the state. And spend time energy and money in resistance. I no longer want to do that. I want to build. And I can’t be building the legacies of our people if the state has me under control, has me locked up, has me so focused on what they’re doing. So if we can sit down and talk one beer at a time and change people’s hearts, that’s making a difference for me. And that’s the place of ministry.”

Despite high density of breweries in Asheville area, beer industry leaders look for more growth

By Nick Haseloff

Asheville natives wonder when the tourism and brewery boom will plateau, but the tourists still show up. People travel to Asheville for beer specifically. Elizabeth Keil, office and marketing manager at Green Man Brewery, said unique breweries only found in Asheville attract tourists to the area.

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Brewers at Wicked Weed Brewery in Downtown Asheville discuss future recipes. 

Photo by Nick Haseloff

“The tourists really enjoy the quality. I think that the increased number of breweries is great for the scene because it forces a lot of creativity and it also gives a lot of breweries the ability to work together and it creates a really tight-knit community that fosters innovation,” Keil said.

Keil compares this sort of cooperation with the Bohemian period in Paris, brewers helping each other out and pushing each other to create more varieties of creative beers. She said brewers are like artists, competing but supporting. However, she does think there is a limit to the creativity.

“I do think there is some sort of cap in some point in time. There’s only so many you can have,” Keil said. “Beer really does have a definition, so there’s only so much creativity you can go with in that limited definition.”

According to Kendra Penland, executive director of the Asheville Brewers Alliance, beer stands as part of the region’s culture and will stay despite concerns about the industry’s economic sustainability.

“Beer is a part of Asheville because of our history of craft. It is a huge part of our economic development,” Penland said. “We developed a history of craft. For generations, the area has been isolated geographically, as well as politically, and it has led to us figuring things out on our own.”

According to the ABA, 32 breweries open for business every day in Buncombe County alone, with 60 more in the outlying areas of Western North Carolina. With this count, WNC rivals the remainder of the state in the number of breweries.

“We have trouble keeping track sometimes,” Penland said. “Every month, we get one or two new members. We’re up to 87 now.”

Even with the constant growth of the brewing industry, brewers have confidence the trade will continue to increase in the area. Charles Moore, brewer at Wicked Weed Brewery, said he welcomes the expansion.

““Every year, you hear someone say, ‘Oh, we’re saturated. There’s no way we can support any more breweries,’” Moore said. “But then lo and behold, people are opening them up and making money and why not jump on that train?””

— Charles Moore

“Every year, you hear someone say, ‘Oh, we’re saturated. There’s no way we can support any more breweries,’” Moore said. “But then lo and behold, people are opening them up and making money and why not jump on that train?”

Keil said many smaller breweries struggle when they discover the difficulties of cost analysis. Larger breweries like Green Man are there to help and provide resources to the smaller operations.

“It’s hard to hear some people say, ‘Oh you know, I didn’t buy that beer because it was $15 a four-pack.’ Well, that’s the only way that brewery can keep those lights on,” Keil said. “It’s because you’ve got this three-tier system. You’ve got these expensive ingredients that go into the beer. So, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if in the next two or three years there were a lot of breweries that started closing because they’re trying to hit this bar that larger breweries have been working on for the last 20-22 years. I don’t think that will affect Asheville’s market, but it will affect others.”

Green Man, the second oldest brewery in Asheville according to Keil,  got their start with very humble beginnings. Employees of Jack of the Wood started the brand and it quickly took off as their microbrews became more popular she said. Nowadays, it is difficult for breweries to establish themselves in the Asheville market, according to Penland.

“It used to be that you would be able to come in with $30,000 and get started brewing. But now, it’s a lot more difficult,” Penland said. “There’s so much competition and the beer is top notch. In order to be competitive, you have to hit the ground running and produce some really great beer. You don’t have time to experiment.”

Smaller breweries have a hard time competing when they do not have the ability to do so. According to Keil, a lot of the critics of larger breweries with big capital just do not understand how difficult it is to balance cost and experimentation.

“But they also haven’t sat behind a desk and tried to figure out how to find the bottom line of this crazy beer that’s got 400 pounds of  coriander and 600 pounds of cherry and trying to find the balance of how to run a business and create all of these crazy innovations and do all these other things, including having a staff of 400 people,” Keil said. ”Without that kind of solid background it’s very very difficult.”

Penland states four things a smaller brewery must master in order to succeed. The brewery must have a solid brand identity, have the capital to make it work, make great beer and connect their brand to the people drinking their beer.

“Every brewery is unique. I really don’t walk into any brewery and think that it is like any of my other members,” Penland said. “Some of them will specialize in particular styles of beers or have a certain aesthetic. But they’re all very different. It’s that marriage of the science and the art that’s so unique. I think that is what drives us to continue to grow as an industry.”

Whatever the future of the beer industry in Asheville, the people inside that industry, such as Moore, Penland and Keil, remain more than confident that it will continue to grow and flourish. With new breweries popping up every month in town, Penland says that we will know soon enough if the Asheville “beer bubble” will ever pop.