We love brewery co-ops, alliances and guilds. Why, feels like just yesterday that we posted an update about the Independent Brewers Alliance saving its members $20,000 annually. Oh, that really was yesterday. Well anyway, in North Carolina, there is another smaller scale organization blossoming. More than 20 Charlotte breweries have turned a casual network into a united, membership-driven, dues-paying organization dubbed, you guessed it, The Charlotte Independent Brewers Alliance.
The group has been meeting informally since at least 2014, said Chris Goulet, CIBA board member and principal owner of Birdsong Brewing Co. The not-for-profit group was finalized in late 2017, with Phil Buchy of Legion Brewing and Ryan Self of The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery joining Goulet on the board of directors.
“Our goal is to work together to promote Charlotte area beers and ciders and educate consumers on the benefits of supporting local brewers,” Goulet said of the group. “Large conglomerates and non-local brewers make strong efforts to mimic local. However, buying those products sends money away from the community and doesn’t support local jobs.”
The group will function similar to a guild. CIBA members must have their primary production facility in Mecklenburg County or one of the five surrounding North Carolina counties (Gaston, Lincoln, Iredell, Cabarrus and Union).
Membership stands at 23 right now:
- Twenty-Six Acres Brewing Co.
- Barking Duck Brewing Co.
- Birdsong Brewing Co.
- Blue Blaze Brewing Co.
- Bold Missy Brewery
- Cavendish Brewing Co.
- The Dreamchaser’s Brewery
- Free Range Brewing
- GoodRoad CiderWorks
- Legion Brewing Co.
- Lenny Boy Brewing Co.
- NoDa Brewing Co.
- The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery
- Red Clay Ciderworks
- Resident Culture Brewing
- Southern Range Brewing
- Sugar Creek Brewing Co.
- Thirsty Nomad Brewing
- Three Spirits Brewery
- Triple C Brewing Co.
- The Unknown Brewing Co.
- Wooden Robot Brewery
- York Chester Brewing Co.
“Our members collectively employ more than 600 people, who all live and work in the Charlotte area,” Goulet said. “We want to bring attention to Charlotte-brewed ciders and beers.”
The group was driven to action by the competitive — some might say increasingly crowded — craft beverage marketplace in Charlotte. The Wicked Weed Brewing acquisition by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2017 helped motivate and coalesce the CIBA movement, Goulet said.
The group made its public debut with a booth at the Queen City Brewers Festival, Feb. 3, at The Fillmore.
The Charlotte Independent Brewers Alliance exists to promote and protect the interests of independent craft brewers founded in and whose primary manufacturing operations are based in Mecklenburg or its contiguous counties. CIBA’s primary goal is to increase the proportion of locally manufactured beer relative to overall consumption in the region. To achieve this goal CIBA will promote the Charlotte region’s homegrown breweries, educate consumers and the community and support positive legislative reform efforts.
