Rocky Mount will soon be the home of North Carolina’s first craft beer incubator. Still in the planning stages, the goal is to bring in enough equipment for eight nano-breweries, and allow brewers to rent space and live in the former mill village, allowing them to collaborate and be personal with their business. Once the Rocky Mount Brewmill is in full swing, organizers hope tours can be offered, so visitors can see the entire brewing process from barley malting to canning and bottling, and can taste the products as well. Another part of the mission is to partner with Nash Community College to offer a brewery education program.
“The gist of it is, making craft beer an economic development tool for eastern North Carolina,” says Margo Knight Metzger, with the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild. “Eastern North Carolina, including Rocky Mount, has struggled economically for quite a long time. I think this project has the potential to put Rocky Mount on the map for manufacturing again, as well as make it a bona fide tourism destination.”