Food and Drink

How the booming local beer industry helps more than just the breweries

By CharlotteFive Staff
Scott Coggins benefits from the craft beer boom despite the fact that he is not a aren't brewers. He leading a tour of Birdsong Brewing Co. in NoDa. His business is Charlotte Brews Cruise.
Scott Coggins benefits from the craft beer boom despite the fact that he is not a aren't brewers. He leading a tour of Birdsong Brewing Co. in NoDa. His business is Charlotte Brews Cruise.

The story

Charlotte has embraced the craft beer scene with gusto. We don’t really need another reason to #drinklocal, but here’s one: The local beer industry helps more than just the breweries you buy from, according to an article by Jacob Steimer in the Observer.

//><!--Among others, it helps the folks that run the food trucks that park outside the breweries, it helps developers that make and sell beer software and it helps people like Scott Coggins, who leads tours to the city’s breweries.//--><!

By the numbers: 

– 17: Breweries in the Charlotte area, up from zero — ZERO — seven years ago.

– $808.9 million: Amount of economic activity generated by Charlotte’s craft breweries in 2014.

– 2: Percent of the above amount earned by the roughly 300 employees who work in the breweries. The rest went to people all across the community “riding the craft beer wave.”

For example:

Sandwiches

Since 2013 Wesley Langenbacher has been selling sandwiches out of his Imperial Sandwich Co. truck.

He parks outside of breweries three to six evenings a week, making 80 percent of his revenue on those nights.

//><!--“After people have had a few beers, they usually enjoy a nice sandwich,” Langenbacher told the Observer.//--><!

Software

In 2014, Greg Forehand’s company Ekos developed software to help Triple C manage its brewery.

The software, which helps brewers track inventory and production lines, is being used by four local breweries and nearly 300 worldwide.

Most of his new business comes from referrals.

“(Brewers) willingly help each other even if they’re right down the street from each other,” Forehand told the Observer. “They don’t see each other as competitors.”

Suds tours

Coggins shows off local breweries through Charlotte Brews Cruise. The 29-year-old UNC Charlotte graduate launched the business in 2013 and averages three tours per week.

This ain’t a party bus, though. Coggins, a history major, wants to educate his clients about the local breweries, the brewing process and the beer.

Coggins has both one of the coolest and most frustrating jobs in Charlotte: He gets to hang out in breweries for work, but he can’t drink a drop of the beer.

So next time you raise a glass at the local craft brewery of your choice, think about all the good your love of beer is doing for the local economy. Tastes good, huh?

Photo: Mark Hames/Charlotte Observer

This story was originally published June 15, 2015 at 12:00 AM.

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